Private Prisons

What are private prisons?

Since the early 1990s, British Governments have issued contracts to private firms for both the construction and the day-to-day running of prisons.

The privatisation of some prison services was pursued by the previous Government to cope with the problems of overcrowding in the UK's prisons and to spread the costs of interning offenders. The role of the private sector in the criminal justice system is now substantial, and shows no signs of abating.

At present there are 11 private prisons contractually managed by private companies such as GSL and Serco. These are Altcourse (GSL), Ashfield (Serco), Bronzefield (Kalyx - previously UKDS), Doncaster (Serco), Dovegate (Serco), Forest Bank (Kalyx), Lowdham Grange (Serco), Parc (G4S Justice Services), Peterborough (Kalyx), Rye Hill (GSL) and Wolds (GSL).

HMP Altcourse was the first designed, constructed, managed and financed private prison in the UK, opening its doors to prisoners on 1st December 1997.

Background

Britain's prison population has been growing for many years, exposing the insufficiency of the existing prisons estate.

The Conservative Government took the first steps toward privatising prisons in the early 1990s by issuing short-term contracts to security companies to operate a limited number of publicly owned prisons. At that time, private involvement was seen as intrinsically superior to traditional public provision, and ideology featured alongside cost as a motivating factor. However, two of the four initially contracted-out prisons, Buckley Hall and Blakenhurst, have since come back into the hands of the Prison Service.

The Labour Government pursued the use of the private sector, following the recommendations of reports such as Lord Laming's report into the management of the Prison Service and having monitored the use of private prisons in the US, pursued this agenda through the Private Finance Initiative.

These are so-called DCMF prisons: they are Designed, Constructed, Managed and Financed by the private sector. The contracts run for 25 years, after which the building becomes the property of the Prison Service.

Private prisons are subject to penalties for failure to meet performance targets set by the Government. Conversely, the Prison Service announced in December 2003 that Dartmoor and Liverpool prisons could be handed over to the private sector if they failed to hit performance targets within five years. In the event both stayed in the public sector.

Controversies

Concerns have been expressed about the quality of service provided by private prisons, with a particular criticism that quality is being reduced to improve efficiency.

A June 2003 report by the National Audit Office expressed deep concern about a number of aspects of the service provided by PFI prisons. It pointed to a lack of experienced staff and a high staff turnover. As a result, it argued, the environment in private prisons is generally less safe than in publicly-run prisons, where prison officers on average have more experience.

The report also warned that the terms of the contracts under which private prisons were run had not been properly refined, and concerns had been expressed about the commercial confidentiality that surrounded the terms under which prisons were being run. Nonetheless, the report concluded on the whole that private sector involvement had benefited the Prison Service, through competition and through the experience of managing commercial PFI contracts.

There was also concern about the level of public grants provided to help with the running of these prisons, which some felt were being otherwise directed away from prison improvement. It had been claimed that there was a trend in private prisons to increase electronic surveillance of inmates in order to reduce staff numbers.

It is noteworthy, however, that many of the private prisons are among the best run in the system, according to reports from the Chief Inspector of Prisons. It is also questionable how else the government would be able to succeed in funding the construction of the prisons necessary to house the ever-increasing prison population. However, when the Government sought a private operator for the failing Brixton prison, not one potential bidder came forward.

Some also claimed that not only was the concept of prison care antithetical to the notion of commercial business but that it was morally inappropriate to profit from the punishment of offenders.

Nevertheless the present Coalition government has confirmed that it intends to follow the policy of the previous Labour administration and continue to expand private involvement in the prisons estate. This policy is strongly opposed by the prison officers' union, the POA, which launched its 'Prisons are not for Profit' campaign in 2009 and has pledged to continue the campaign throughout 2011. The union believes that private prisons tend to operate with lower staffing levels in order to maximise profit and that this inevitably leads to less security in prisons.

Statistics

There are currently 137 prisons in England and Wales; 126 of these are run by the public sector through Her Majesty's Prison Service and 11 are operated by private sector partners.

Source: NOMS - 2011

Projections of the prison population in England and Wales from June 2010 to December 2016. The projections are based on assumptions about future sentencing trends.

Increased sentencing No change Decreased sentencing

2011 88,000 87,100 86,100
2012 89,300 87,700 85,900
2013 90,800 88,400 85,700
2014 92,000 88,700 85,200
2015 92,800 88,600 84,200
2016 93,600 88,500 83,100

Source: Ministry of Justice - 2010

The ratio of prisoners to prisoner officers in all public sector prisons in England and Wales as at 31 March 2010 is one officer to 3.03 prisoners (1:3.03).
The ratio of prisoners to prisoner officers in all private prisons in England and Wales as at 31 March 2010 is one officer to 3.78 prisoners (1:3.78)

Source: Commons Hansard written answers - September 2010

Quotes

"Our measures will restore confidence in the criminal justice system, re-design prisons for the 21st century, and launch a sentencing and rehabilitation revolution.
Prison and Rehabilitation Trusts and private sector prisons will be paid by results - with a premium awarded if the offender is not reconvicted within two years."

Conservative Party - 'Repair: plan for social reform'.

"Privately operated prisons' sole aim is to ensure profit is made for the shareholders and the needs of offenders are overlooked."

POA - 2011