Report sent to ministers exposed shortcomings two weeks before inmates went on �3m drunken rampage
Justice ministers were warned of serious security shortcomings at Ford open prison just two weeks before balaclava-clad inmates reduced parts of the jail to ashes in a drunken New Year rampage.
A report delivered to the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, on 16 December warned a "minimal number" of junior staff were left to patrol the jail at night, even though they had only limited training.
In the early hours of New Year's Day, 40 of the 500 prisoners at Ford, near Arundel, West Sussex, caused �3m damage after staff tried to breathalyse some of them. The level of violence was unprecedented for a minimum-security jail.
The report by the prison's independent monitoring board (IMB) showed that searches of the prison using sniffer dogs over the past three years had found an extraordinary amount of illicit goods, including mobile phones, drug paraphernalia and 51 litres of alcohol.
It added: "While there have only been minor incidents in the last year, we do not consider proper control is being exercised at night and are sceptical of the response in the past that it must be adequate because there has not been a serious incident yet."
The IMB's concerns about night staffing confirm claims that only two prison officers and four support staff were actually on duty at Ford on the night of the riot. Ministry of Justice figures published today revealed similar minimal staffing levels on night duty at open prisons across England and Wales and that six jails had even fewer staff than Ford.
Charles Pinney, the chairman of the Ford monitoring board, said they had complained many times about Ford's reputation as "the cheapest prison" and the constraints that put on governors.
The IMB report, which was made public today, makes clear that as an open prison drugs, alcohol, mobile phones and other illicit substances continue to find their way into Ford. But it reveals a traffic in illicit goods on a stunning scale, including 360 mobile phones, 323 chargers, 115 sim cards, and 200 items of drug paraphernalia. The prison's board believes that even more would have been uncovered if more use had been made of the dogs.
A Prison Service spokesperson said an internal investigation was being held into the disturbance at Ford, adding: "We will consider the recommendations in the independent monitoring board report along with the findings from the investigation."
The disclosures about Ford came as the justice ministry said today that it was closing two of its smallest jails and turning a third ? a women's prison ? into an immigration detention centre.
The two jails to close are Lancaster Castle, near Preston, which houses 238 inmates, and Ashwell in Rutland, which holds only 214 prisoners after its other 400 places were destroyed in a riot in 2009. The ministry said that the cost of refurbishing Ashwell to the standards required was not financially viable.
The third prison, Morton Hall in Lincolnshire, which currently holds 392 women prisoners, including a large contingent of foreign nationals, is to be operated by the prison service for the United Kingdom Border Agency, as a detention centre for those facing deportation.
A Home Office spokesman said that the perimeter fence at Morton Hall was being extended to take in a neighbouring unit that had been used for a "weekend prison" experiment in order to transform it from a prison to an immigration centre.
The justice ministry said that lower than expected growth in prison numbers had left it with 87,936 places and 82,991 prisoners. This meant it was possible to reduce capacity in England and Wales by 850 places without jeopardising the ability to cope with rises in jail numbers.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/13/ford-prison-riot-security-warning
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