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Safety: Not covered
Respect: 5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Accommodation • Accommodation at Lindholme consists of two large wings, six spurs and two dedicated wings, one for induction and the other for drug rehabilitation. • There have been numerous applications (prisoners’ written representations) to the IMB about cells being either too cold or too hot. Maintenance continues on a regular basis to improve ventilation and [...]
Purposeful activity: Education within the prison is delivered by NOVUS under the newly introduced PES (prison education system) contract. Work focuses on assessment, engagement and employability skills and based on the five core principles of teamwork, communication, self-management, problem solving and presentation. All prisoners are assessed at induction to determine suitability for the courses available and twice [...]
Preparation for release: In the current reporting year, it must be acknowledged that the offender management Unit (OMU) has been working under considerable pressure. This is partly due to the increased workload created by the government’s early release schemes and, also a shortage of staff across all grades in OMU, including prison offender managers (POM). This has resulted in a heavy caseload of prisoners (1-65) and [...]
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Practical info
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5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Accommodation • Accommodation at Lindholme consists of two large wings, six spurs and two dedicated wings, one for induction and the other for drug rehabilitation. • There have been numerous applications (prisoners’ written representations) to the IMB about cells being either too cold or too hot. Maintenance continues on a regular basis to improve ventilation and heating systems, nevertheless challenges remain. • The lack of cleanliness and staining of the cell toilets continues to be a concern to the Board. Delays in sourcing suitable cleaning materials continue and the physical cleaning process is ongoing and slow. We will continue to monitor this in the coming year. • The courtesy locking of prisoner cells continues to be a problem, as the majority of cells are fitted with a lock that allows the prisoner to lock their cell from the inside and also, using a courtesy key, lock their cell from the outside. The prison staff have keys that can override this in order to enter the cell. However, over time, the vast majority of these courtesy keys have become unavailable or lost. The consequence of this is that prisoners are unable to lock their cell when they leave it unattended, thus relying on staff, who are not always available, to lock them. The outcome of this is a prisoner’s property is regularly stolen whilst they are elsewhere. Replacing these courtesy keys is costly and not something the prison is contemplating doing in the near future. [...]
In the current reporting year, it must be acknowledged that the offender management Unit (OMU) has been working under considerable pressure. This is partly due to the increased workload created by the government’s early release schemes and, also a shortage of staff across all grades in OMU, including prison offender managers (POM). This has resulted in a heavy caseload of prisoners (1-65) and during the current reporting year, agency staff have been brought in for support. The situation has been further exacerbated due to the high churn of prisoners coming from the (local) prisons to Lindholme who have not had their initial OASys processed. OASys is a tool used to evaluate the risks and needs of offenders in England and Wales which include a prisoner’s sentence plan leading to backlogs in prisoners receiving this. 27 Our recent annual IMB prisoner survey shows that prisoner confidence remains low. Only 35% of prisoners who responded to the survey said that they had seen or spoken to their POM within the last 28 days with 15% citing no contact at all. A sizeable group, roughly one third, reported that their last contact has been between 3 – 12 months. This is reflected in more general complaints to the IMB during our monitoring concerning the delays and uncertainties around their progression. This is increasing stress, anxiety and a lack of clarity in how to move forward. Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) prisoners: During this reporting year, the Board has observed [...]
Education within the prison is delivered by NOVUS under the newly introduced PES (prison education system) contract. Work focuses on assessment, engagement and employability skills and based on the five core principles of teamwork, communication, self-management, problem solving and presentation. All prisoners are assessed at induction to determine suitability for the courses available and twice weekly sequencing meetings are held by the amenities team alongside education and CIAG (careers information and guidance) to allocate prisoners appropriately. Functional skills, for those who do not have a qualification in English and maths, are deemed mandatory. However, whilst this does support prisoners to make a more effective reintegration into the world of work, it remains not always the suitable option, especially for those older prisoners who would prefer a learning environment that develops and supports a more practical skill set. Over the past few months, partly due to the large number of class closures from NOVUS, education attendance has suffered a sharp decline. This, as well as lower than average course completion rates, is now a focus for the management team in the coming year. The prison has an excellent library facility that works in conjunction with Doncaster council. It produces an excellent range of fiction, non-fiction and legal texts and prisoners are able to order books through the in-cell tech system and then make an appointment to collect them. This year is [...]
