Feltham improving but inmates still lack support

Thursday, 10 November 2005 12:00 AM

The young offenders institute where a teenager was beaten to death by his racist cellmate is making progress but still fails to provide inmates with the support they need, a new report finds.

Chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers said that Feltham institute in west London has made significant progress on race relations, training, education and work with juveniles since Zahid Mubarek, 19, was killed five years ago.

He was beaten to death by Robert Stewart just hours before he was due to be released from Feltham, where he was serving three months for theft. Stewart is now serving life for murder.

However, Ms Owers' report warns that physical healthcare for the majority of the inmates is "wholly inadequate", while the institution is not providing suitable support for the number of seriously mentally ill young people detained there.

The number of assaults remains high, it says, although it is reducing, while anti-bullying procedures and staff awareness of such problems were described as "weak".

"Feltham is undoubtedly a different establishment from the one that attracted so much attention and criticism in the past," said Ms Owers.

"It remains, however, a difficult establishment to manage safely: with a rapidly-changing population of extremely volatile young people, who are nevertheless also vulnerable and damaged."

She called for additional mental health capacity to be provided outside the prison system to deal with mentally ill offenders, and warned that the way Feltham is perceived, as a "transit camp", must be changed for any real progress to be made.

The average stay among offenders aged over 18 is only 11 days, the report finds, which "made it much more difficult to provide a safe and positive environment", as well as providing mentoring, qualifications and sentence planning.

In addition, ethnic minority juveniles are still more concerned about safety and reported more negative treatment by staff than white inmates. The report also finds the support for foreign nationals at Feltham - who make up a third of offenders - is "insufficient".

The prison service welcomed the report's emphasis of the problems faced by Feltham in managing some of the "most disturbed and challenging young offenders in the country", and in dealing with the public scrutiny since Mr Mubarek's death.

Director general Phil Weatley welcomed the appreciation of what progress had been made, saying: "This is a considerable achievement and is testament to the dedication and efforts of the staff and management at the prison."

"Obviously, there are still problems that need to be addressed and there is still a lot of hard work to be done, particularly in the delivery of healthcare services at the prison," he said.
"However, all the parties involved are aware of these issues and have developed a range of robust and innovative plans to address them."

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