Super prison is a bad idea, claims British inspector
Anne Owers said the French did this in the 1980s and had not built a large prison since, because of problems it incurred. She said the British Government was also planning three larger-scale “Titan” prisons.
“All the evidence is that small prisons work better than large ones,” said Ms Owers.
“Larger prisons are harder to run, the relationships between staff and prisoners, and prisoners and staff are not as good. It is harder for staff to know prisoners.
“They built a large prison in France, for 2,500, and have never built one since.” She said all prisons built after that were for 400 to 600 inmates. Thornton Hall in north Dublin will house 1,400 inmates and has been “future proofed” to house a possible maximum of 2,200.
Ms Owers has been the chief British prison inspector for England and Wales since 2001. She was in Ireland last week as guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, she said there were economic advantages to large prisons. “They are hoped to provide more core services more cheaply in a big prison.”
But she said there was a difference between efficiency and effectiveness.
“It is very difficult to run big prisons effectively as well as efficiently. By effectively, I mean to make sure the prison is run decently and safely, but also that the needs of each individual prisoner are, as far as possible, dealt with within that prison — to make it less likely that they’re going to offend once they’re out.
“The more people you’ve got, the more difficult it becomes to do that, she said. “If you have large prisons it is very difficult to have the resources to do positive work with prisoners, it makes it more difficult. It depends on resources you put into it.”
The Irish Prison Service said Thornton was not a super prison and would have eight separate units with their own self-contained facilities. But Ms Owers said the French prison had this type of set-up. “In France, they set up different units, for juveniles and adults, but you still have a single prison. The level of bureaucracy required for that to work — it is difficult to do that. They are proposing separate units in the proposed prisons here... This has not worked, I’m not saying it can’t work, but other countries have had problems.”
She said there were security concerns about bigger prisons and what would happen if a riot in one section spread. She said another problem is that they tend to the located, as with Thornton, a considerable distance from prisoners’ families
IN a recent radio documentary on BBC Radio 4, the governor of France’s “super prison” said jails should be kept to a maximum of 600 inmates.
Joaquim Pueyo runs Fleury-Merogis, which was built to house 2,500, but is now seriously overcrowded.
“I think prison establishments are better and more adapted to our mission if they are of a medium size — say 600 inmates. That’s my recommendation.
“But if a decision is taken to create a big prison, design blocks for no more than four hundred prisoners, with one per cell.
“Each small building would have to be autonomous, with a team of management dedicated to each building, which would allow individual relationships.”
Julien Morel, a spokesman for the French Prison Service, said prisons containing 600-700 inmates were the “maximum” size they were building.
Bernard Gaudicheau, a prison officer at Fleury-Merogis said the prison had been a failure. He said: “The size of the prison makes it hard for management. But for us guards, managing the wings is difficult.”
The president of the British Prison Governors Association, Paul Tidball, said: “What we’re concerned about is the challenge of keeping them stable will be a lot greater than it is in smaller prisons, where prisoners themselves feel a bit of ownership.”
He said plans in Britain for three Titan prisons (as with Thornton Hall) was for separate units to try to prevent disturbances turning into a serious riot.
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