Unions criticise prison closures

News that four more prisons are to close, resulting in up to 700 job losses, has been strongly criticised by unions.

The Ministry of Justice has announced plans to close prisons in Blundeston, Dorchester, Northallerton and Reading by the end of the year to make way for a “super prison” housing 2,000 inmates in Wrexham, Wales, but which is not due to be fully operational until late 2017.

“With the assaults and violence going on, we are extremely concerned by the powder keg situation in prisons and severe overcrowding,” said Steve Gillan, general secretary of the POA prison officers’ union.

The union has requested a meeting with Michael Spurr, chief executive officer of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) agency in response to this announcement. But it said that so far, its arguments that the closures show an acceptance of institutional overcrowding and violence have fallen on deaf ears. The recently-announced closures are in addition to six other prison closures and the partial closure of three more.

The PCS civil service union also has members working in all four prisons set to close. It too slammed the announcement, saying it would do little to tackle the 22% overcrowding, while putting hundreds of jobs at risk.

“We condemn the prison closure programme when many prisons across the estate are chronically overcrowded meaning a poor working environment for staff and poor living conditions for prisoners,” the union said.

www.poauk.org.uk/index.php?circulars&newsdetail=20130904-9_prison-closures-a-service-in-crisis

www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/the-great-prison-closure-continues