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Prison Officer ORG.UK is now THREE YEARS OLD!

"congrats on 3 years service.... keep it going"	Oldboy
"Yer its brilliant the site has been around this long and has been very helpfull however in recent months it has become very negative which never gives a good image "	G1ZzL3
"Its fantastic that for the last 3 years this site has given Prison Officers an uncensored Forum to share their opinions, pass information and seek guidance, long may it continue."	Dr Doubles
"Happy 3rd Anniversary to all that have contributed to making this a great forum and thank you Malcolm "	SAMANTHA
"I've been here from the inception of the site and the thing that surprises me most is how the recruitment process can be so flawed and yet nothing has been done to rectify the situation. A very sorry state of affairs considering the jails are undermanned and so many are awaiting placements."	Carbon
"To be honest I think that this site is an invaluable resource for those researching a career within HMPS or to those that are or have already served. A place to have discussions etc with like minded people and to have differing views on various topics only makes an officer better. "	Burnlee
"I think the site is an exceptional resource for those wishing to enter the service, for those in or who have left the service as well as those who have a 'healthy' interest in the Prison Service. It helped me greatly during those dark days after completing the assessments and would have actually inspired me to apply had I become a member beforehand. Saying all of that - I have as yet not been appointed by HMPs and in theory I am still on the waiting for a vacancy list (Applied Jan 08 - completed assessments by June 08). However that does not detract from the value of the site it merely explains my lack of posts for the last year. I believe the site and its members provide a balanced view of the service from a staff perspective which then breeds input from prospective staff. I say happy third anniversary and many more fact packed years to come."	Miquay

'No confidence' in Guernsey's prison deputy governor
5 JUL 2010 | BBC NEWS

Staff at Guernsey's prison have lodged a vote of no confidence in a senior member of its management.

The majority of staff at a meeting convened by the Unite union on Friday said they lacked confidence in the deputy governor Rachael Green.

They said they had confidence in Terry Wright, the governor of the prison at Les Nicolles, but by a narrow margin.

Home Department Minister Geoff Mahy said he was confident a programme of change could be introduced.

He said: "Clearly we have work to do, and clearly we must improve the way we work together in partnership with the prison officers.

"We have confidence that the management can work with the staff along the guidelines recommended by industrial tribunal."

MOST OVERCROWDED PRISONS IN 2010 Kennet (Liverpool) 193.0% Preston, Swansea 172.2% Exeter 170.1% Dorchester 168.0% Shrewsbury 166.3% Leicester 165.2% Altcourse (Liverpool) 164.0% Durham 161.0% Canterbury 155.4% Bedford 154.6% Source: Howard League for Penal Reform, England and Wales

The 20 most overcrowded jails in England and Wales have been revealed by prison reform campaigners. BBC NEWS 30 April 2010 The Howard League for Penal Reform said Kennet prison in Liverpool, with a prison population of 338, topped the list at 193% capacity. It was followed by Preston and Swansea prisons, both at 172% capacity based on government figures for March. The Prison Service said 1,750 extra jail places had been provided in 2009, and more than 7,500 since April 2007. The Howard League said the prison population had reached a record high of 85,086 since the end of the early release scheme, which allowed some inmates to be let out up to 18 days early until 9 April this year. Prisons were at 111% capacity in England and Wales with a total of 80 prisons overpopulated, it added. The group said problems with the implementation of an IT system for prisons meant the government had published monthly custody statistics for the first time in almost a year. Howard League director Frances Crook said: "Overcrowding results in fewer resources being available for each individual prisoner and it results in a higher amount of prisoners per prison guard. "Consequently, prison services focus on maintenance of basic amenities more than reintegration and security more than purposeful activity and rehabilitation."

She added: "Short-term gimmicks do not work in the long term and do not keep society safe. Politicians must act with haste to strategically reduce the prison population."

Inmate makes bid to escape as prison van stops at lights
Published Date: 29 April 2010 By CHRIS MARSHALL and SUE GYFORD
A PRISONER went on the run after escaping from a prison van when it was stopped at traffic lights.

The inmate was being taken from Addiewell Prison to Shotts Prison yesterday afternoon when he broke free from a van operated by private security firm Reliance and ran off into fields near Breich, West Lothian.

The man was on the run for 15 minutes before being captured following a joint operation by Lothian and Borders and Strathclyde Police. Reliance has now launched an urgent inquiry to find out how the man managed to escape from the van at around 2pm yesterday.

A spokesman for the firm said: "We have instigated an immediate internal inquiry to establish the circumstances of this incident."

He added: "Reliance delivers around 17,000 prisoners a month to Scotland's courts and incidents of this nature are extremely rare."

Due to the location of yesterday's incident, officers from both Strathclyde and Lothian and Borders were involved.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "An immediate search was launched by Lothian and Borders Police and Strathclyde Police, and the man was successfully detained around 15 minutes later."

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Leeds man posted drugs to women in prison
Published Date: 13 February 2010
By Aisha Iqbal

A bungling smuggler tried to post drugs into a prison by hiding them in letters, but caught out by his fingerprints and handwriting. Steward Richmond, 32, from Birdsall Gardens, Armley, hid illegal class C heroin substitutes in five letters and sent them to inmates at New Hall prison in Wakefield over three-months, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Drug addict and alcoholic Richmond, who has a string of previous crimes to his name, had pleaded guilty at a hearing last month to five charges of conveying a 'List A' article into a prison.

Jonathan Devlin, prosecuting, told the court that between June and October 2008, Richmond sent a number of letters to prisoners at the women-only New Hall prison.

Each envelope was found to contain a small amount of heroin substitute.

The prison value of each dose was £5 but the tablets would be sold on the street for £1 each.

The court heard the envelopes were examined after prison officers became suspicious.

Cigarette papers containing the drugs were found in each envelope.

The court was told Richmond was identified following handwriting and fingerprint tests on the envelopes

The prisoners causing trouble on Facebook
By Sarah Bell Thursday, 4 February 2010
Like many of its 350 million users worldwide, jailed underworld boss Colin Gunn used his Facebook account to let his friends know what was on his mind.

Gunn, a big-time Nottingham gangster who ordered the revenge killings of John and Joan Stirland, threatened: "I will be home one day and I can't wait to look into certain people's eyes and see the fear of me being there."

An inquest opened this week to determine whether police corruption contributed to the Stirlands' death. They were gunned down at their bungalow in Lincolnshire in 2004.

Gunn had set up his Facebook profile in November, claiming prison authorities had relaxed their attitude towards him after he had served part of his sentence in Whitemoor jail, Cambridgeshire, the Sunday Times reported at the weekend.

The Ministry of Justice says prisoners are banned from using social networking sites, and his page was closed by Facebook for violating its policies.

But Gunn is the latest in a line of convicted criminals who have used social networking sites to abuse victims and boast about life in prison.

Taunting victims

Last month, Jade Braithwaite, jailed for knifing to death Ben Kinsella, 16, used the site to taunt his victim's family.

The 20-year-old boasted he was "down but not out" and wanted a remote control so he could "mute or delete people when I need to".

Manchester gangster Domenyk Noonan, also known as Lattlay-Fottfoy, 45, was believed to have used a smuggled mobile telephone to add photos and comments to his webpage.

And prolific burglar Roy Boodle, 28, taunted detectives on Facebook for 18 months saying that he could not be caught. But he was and was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Earlier this month, relatives of victims of violent crime called for the introduction of electronic anti-social behaviour orders, or "e-Asbos" to stop convicted killers bragging online.

NEWS FROM DOWN UNDER          New Zealand:
Private prison opposers launch vocal protest
NZPA | Tuesday February 9 2010 - 03:54pm
Opposition MPs supported a small but vocal protest today outside Parliament, with the Public Service (PSA) and Corrections associations warning of backlashes if the Government privatises prisons.

A bill allowing the privatisation of prisons was passed under urgency in November and Corrections Minister Judith Collins has earmarked Auckland's Mt Eden Prison and one being built at Wiri in south Auckland as the first two.

PSA assistant national secretary Jeff Osborne, Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon and opposition MPs told a small crowd of people wearing Judith Collins masks that private prisons were more expensive to the taxpayer and led to reduced service as costs were gradually cut to increase profits.

Mr Osborne said figures from the Corrections Department showed operating costs for the Australian company that managed Auckland Remand Prison from 2000 to 2005 were $43,000 per inmate -- $7000 more than the Corrections Department costs per remand prisoner.

Mr Hanlon said if Mt Eden was privatised 450 jobs would be put on the line, and most of those lucky enough to apply for and retain work in a private capacity would have their wages significantly reduced.

He said Corrections was not allowed to contract for the running of prisons in a private capacity and any profits would go to offshore companies.

Labour Party corrections spokesman Clayton Cosgrove said running prisons was a core state responsibility and transferring that to the private sector was a "cop-out", not cost effective and a slap in the face for prison officers who did one of the toughest jobs in the country.

An inmate has admitted sending thousands of intimate text and picture messages to two female prison workers from a mobile phone smuggled into his cell in west London. 11 FEB 2010 | PRESS ASSOC

Duran Braithwaite pleaded guilty to sending the messages to two women he called Head Gal and Mad M while he was imprisoned at HMP Wormwood Scrubs in Shepherd's Bush, west London, last year.

But the 28-year-old denies encouraging Danielle Lynch and Marcia Smith, two workers who were both one rank below prison officers, to commit offences by replying to his messages and calls.

Howard Tobias, prosecuting, told London's Southwark Crown Court that Lynch replied with picture messages showing her in "various stages of undress, from being clothed to topless and naked". He told the jury the two women were operational support grades, the equivalent of community support officers in the police service.

Mr Tobias said: "At some point relations were established between the defendant Mr Braithwaite and Marcia Smith and then between him and Danielle Lynch. Those relationships, whatever form they took, were in breach of their employment terms."

He said the consequences of such a security breach were "serious" and it was an offence for the women to reply to Braithwaite's messages. He told the jury of seven men and five women: "The Crown's case is that the sending of texts, picture messages and the making of phone calls is communicating with a person.

"By definition, if you send a text message or make a call you are encouraging the other party to reply. You have to decide whether the communication did encourage the commission of these offences. I suggest as a matter of course that it must do."

In all, Lynch sent Braithwaite 2,666 messages and called him 245 times between January 23 and March 11 last year when his cell was searched and the mobile phone seized. He then switched on a second phone and received a further 2,421 messages and 120 calls from Lynch.

Braithwaite, who is now in HMP Pentonville in north London, admitted sending Lynch 2,361 texts and 590 calls using the first phone and 2926 messages and 398 calls with the second phone. Among others, he also admitted sending Smith 104 texts and calling her four times. Prosecutors allege she sent Braithwaite 140 text message and called him twice.

Prisoners complain about 'glamorous' women warders
11/02/2010 Daily Mirror
Prisoners are complaining about "glammed-up" women warders wearing lipstick and smelling of perfume.

They say female officers - now 40% of the staff - are increasing frustration levels in men's jails.

One lifer told prison magazine Inside Time: "In the old days the only women appearing within our prisons wore habits. They are now a common sight."

But Glyn Travis, of the Prison Officers' Association, defended the rise of women staff and their right to wear make-up and perfume.

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Staff shake-up at Whitemoor Prison could see university graduates hired as officers
10:50 - 12 February 2010
EXCLUSIVE by: ADAM LAZZARI
STAFF at Whitemoor Prison in March fear they will be exposed to increasing dangers caused by a shake up of the jail's staffing system.

A source at the high security prison, which houses some of Britain's most dangerous criminals, said the Prison Service is looking to abolish the principal officer grade to cut costs.

Principal officers operate between the officers and governors.

The source said: "The Prison Service want university graduates as governors and officers to be people who work at the prison as a stop gap for two or three years. It's not to be a career job any more.

"This will mean that staff all over the prison are less experienced and have less training. Staff are already worried that Whitemoor is becoming an incredibly dangerous place to work."

The source's comments come in the wake of two serious assaults at the prison, carried out in the last three weeks.

The first resulted in six members of staff being assaulted. A female officer suffered a broken jaw and a male officer a broken nose when attacked by an inmate as they attempted to issue him with a warning for unruly behaviour.

The second incident was at around 9.45am on January 30.

Convicted rapist Durwayne Martin, 26, had boiling butter poured over him by a gang of three inmates, which included Jamaile Morally, 22, who is serving a life sentence for the murder, rape and torture of a 16-year-old girl. The attack followed a row over the use of a telephone.

Martin is still receiving treatment at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford.

The three inmates are being kept in a segregation unit inside the prison and an investigation is being carried out by Cambridgeshire Police.

A prison service spokesman said of the latest incident: "A prisoner at HMP Whitemoor was taken to outside hospital after being found in a prison wing kitchen with scalding injuries to his upper body at about 9.45am on Saturday 30 January 30.

"Three other prisoners were seen leaving the kitchen and have been moved to the segregation unit while a police investigation takes place."

The source said: "Whitemoor is one of the only high security prisons in the country where inmates have access to the kitchens. This was the third serious assault in the last year that has come from the kitchen."

Inmates were denied access to knives after a stabbing at the prison last year.

A newly recruited prison officer, still in his probationary period, may receive an award for bravery.

He pulled 6ft 5ins Martin with his arm around his shoulder to a cold bath and kept him there until medics arrived.

A review of Whitemoor Prison, carried out by the Prison Service in 2008, raised serious concerns about prison officers losing control of the prison to gangs of Muslim extremist inmates.

26 January 2010 | Sunderland Echo
Drugs were stuffed inside baked beans and soup tins in a bid to smuggle contraband into a top-security prison.
Mobile phones were also among the items, worth thousands of pounds, discovered in the attempt at Durham Frankland Prison. The major haul included heroin, cocaine, bricks of cannabis, amphetamines, Subutex painkillers, 13 mobiles, 24 SIM cards, phone charger cables and three tins of neat alcohol.

They were packed in a sealed prison bag delivered by courier and made to look as if they were for a prisoner who had been transferred from Manchester.

But officers at Frankland, which houses dangerous prisoners such as Soham killer Ian Huntley, discovered the package's contents.

An insider said: "It must be one of the biggest finds of its tins in the prison's regime."

A Prison Service spokesman said: "Vigilant staff at HMP Frankland foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs, mobiles, and alcohol in resealed food tins.