Port of Tilbury-Police Constable

[Fedster + 1,307]

Seconded officer lifts the lid in tales from the inside.

Inside HMP Berwyn: Shangrila of slammers

 

Date - 9th September 2018
By - Nick Hudson - Police Oracle

 

A stint in Britain’s ‘cushiest jail’ is the best place to set offenders onto the straight and narrow, according to rank and file officers.

Policing Europe’s second biggest prison has revealed that if a criminal “wishes to reform”, they should look no further than Wrexham’s super penal institution.

The claims by one of HMP Berwyn's dedicated law-enforcement team maintains “every crime imaginable” is being perpetrated there.

But PC Gary Edwards, writing in the North Wales Police Federation’s newsletter Your Voice, says his initial scepticism of the rehabilitation mantra at the ‘Shangri-La of slammers’ has been replaced by seeing convicts offered “every possible positive opportunity”.

PC Edwards accepted he originally found his indignation rising from the “pit of his stomach”, adding: “Years of endlessly working to put these people away to now discover the realities of prison life; hardly a punishment.”

He argued: “Believe me, I have battled with this cynicism since arriving last November. I pondered it over a cup of tea in the newly-established café where we are served by residents who bake and serve prize-winning pies.”

Prisoners have full access to a laptop as well as various opportunities to work and develop educationally with a variety of businesses and universities. They have a phone in their rooms rather than the traditional community version along with a shower and a flushing toilet.

The residents have access to various opportunities to work and develop educationally with a variety of businesses and universities.

But his cynicism tempered and mind-set changed, he added: “If a criminal wishes to reform, this is the place to do it. If they choose not to, they really only have themselves to blame.”

He sees this “new way of working” as one that other prisons and police forces will be keen to replicate

The officer, in an office shared by a sergeant and three detectives which is no bigger than a double cell without a window, also applauds the prison governors for their understanding of what the police require on a daily basis when investigating the crimes that are generated inside.

“Evidential avenues, such as access to residents’ phone data, visitor information and all manner of material is either accessible by us directly or a quick conversation away,” he noted.

“We also have full access to the prison and access to the keys. I can walk anywhere I want, although I tend not to whistle my way through the wings when the ‘residents’ are on association.

PC Edwards is concerned that the volume of work which the prison is currently generating is “over spilling” the capacity of the team and HMP Berwyn is only half full.

With a 1,083 prisoner total, the policing team is expecting the population to increase rapidly throughout the rest of the year.

PC Edwards added: “Without a doubt, extra resources from the police will be required, sooner rather than later.”

Meanwhile, prisoners could be handed the vote in Scotland as ministers unveiled plans for a new electoral franchise law.

But the Scottish government has concluded that plans will be held in abeyance until a consultation has been undertaken.

Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said the proposals demonstrated the SNP is “unable to give victims a meaningful place in the justice system”.

A court in Strasbourg ruled in 2004 that a blanket ban on British prisoners exercising the right to vote contravened the European Convention on Human Rights

View On Police Oracle

[Zulu 22 + 4,574]

Hmm,  detective Sergeant and 3 detectives seconded to their own office to deal with the crimes within the prison does not reflect a successful rehabilitation. I have been searching to rent a holiday home for 2 weeks and have yet to find something with equal facilities.

[Radman + 2,163]

1 hour ago, Zulu 22 said:

Hmm,  detective Sergeant and 3 detectives seconded to their own office to deal with the crimes within the prison does not reflect a successful rehabilitation. I have been searching to rent a holiday home for 2 weeks and have yet to find something with equal facilities.

Prison Service could and should be handling those investigations themselves.

They do in the US why not here?

[Zulu 22 + 4,574]

We have some liason Officer's in HMP for assisting in arrangements for interviewing prisoner's but  have never heard of a CID investigations team within the prison for investigations crimes within. Major crimes, murder, would have a team go in but never a day to day team.

[David + 4,981]

1 hour ago, Zulu 22 said:

I have been searching to rent a holiday home for 2 weeks and have yet to find something with equal facilities.

Arguably there are hundreds of schools that have the same problem.

That said. I think the facility is on the right lines but it does seem balanced to being too cushy: I think inmates do need to be reminded they are in prison,  and in prison for a reason, and there can be no need for telephones as suggested in the article. 

[ParochialYokal 1,119]

Don’t police officers attached to prisons have an intelligence gathering role?

Wasn’t that hinted at during the comments relating to the easy access to phone and visitor data? These prisoners now have cell-specific phones that could be a goldmine for intel in a way that traditional communal phone wasn’t.

[David + 4,981]

All well and good @ParochialYokal but how would that square against the liberals and GDPR etc though?

[Beaker 817]

2 hours ago, ParochialYokal said:

Don’t police officers attached to prisons have an intelligence gathering role?

Wasn’t that hinted at during the comments relating to the easy access to phone and visitor data? These prisoners now have cell-specific phones that could be a goldmine for intel in a way that traditional communal phone wasn’t.

 

1 hour ago, David said:

All well and good @ParochialYokal but how would that square against the liberals and GDPR etc though?

If they're being supplied by the Prison Service, and they're paid for or subsidised by the Prison Service then HMP can monitor them.  Even without it being written explicitly into the Terms of Service.  No different than an employer who monitors usage on gear they paid for.  

Edited September 9, 2018 by Beaker

[Radman + 2,163]

Those Detectives are absconded from force though, they aren't folk recruited or trained specifically for that role. 

I mean my position is simple, it's been reported heavily that we have a national shortage of detectives to investigate routine volume crime jobs let alone serious/specialised crime and the prison service requires a 1x DS and 3x DCs to work out of a prison due to the level of crime and intelligence inside of that building?

This strikes me atleast as being the exact problem I raised in another thread on here today, public services are relying on the Local county forces to do what should be their job for them, relieving themselves of responsibility. 

In other nations across the planet prisons have their own investigators who sort issues such of these out, it isn't unreasonable in my mind at least that the prison service does the same here.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Radman

[Mac7 808]

All well and good [mention=806]ParochialYokal[/mention] but how would that square against the liberals and GDPR etc though?

Like anything within policing, if there is sufficient grounds/intel then the cops (PIO’s) or in this case the investigation team would apply for an authority. GDPR/Human rights (qualified) can be bypassed with the appropriate authority.

[ParochialYokal 1,119]

All well and good [mention=806]ParochialYokal[/mention] but how would that square against the liberals and GDPR etc though?

 

I believe that commentary above clarifies the legal justification.

 

Having a phone attached to a cell brings a clear intelligence advantage as there is no need to cross reference phone card details (do they still have phone cards?) or CCTV coverage in order to match a call to a person before intercepting call content. I can only imagine that all calls were recorded and then a time consuming process was engaged in to justify listening to content, after attributing the call beyond all reasonable doubt to the matey boy in question.

 

Moreover, a phone in a cell also has the potential to act as a bugging device.

 

I very much doubt that intelligence would ever be collected unlawfully but providing a phone in a cell has real intel potential.

 

It also reduces disorder as a result of non-existent queues, which previously used to boil over into aggressive and sometimes violent behaviour.

 

[David + 4,981]

All convincing reasons regarding phones, but I still feel it's a step too far by installing them cell-by-cell.

As I say, whilst I broadly support the initiative here - I've argued for many a long year that prison sentences must be meaningful but coupled with with mandatory education/training etc - at the same time, those inside must remember they are inside and why they are inside. Make it too much like home with a cushy life and it raises questions as to those struggling on the outside, and in that, why would any young person have to go and earn a living and forge a life whilst being inside is like this?

I remember seeing an ex-prisoner on TV arguing for phones in cells as he claimed it reduced violence, as has been suggested, as well as easing anxieties with the prisoners who were able to maintain a more regular contact with their family, in his case his daughter. All well and good, ex-prisoner, but then, perhaps you should have considered your family and daughter before getting yourself into the position of actually getting a jail sentence?

[ParochialYokal 1,119]

All convincing reasons regarding phones, but I still feel it's a step too far by installing them cell-by-cell. As I say, whilst I broadly support the initiative here - I've argued for many a long year that prison sentences must be meaningful but coupled with with mandatory education/training etc - at the same time, those inside must remember they are inside and why they are inside. Make it too much like home with a cushy life and it raises questions as to those struggling on the outside, and in that, why would any young person have to go and earn a living and forge a life whilst being inside is like this? I remember seeing an ex-prisoner on TV arguing for phones in cells as he claimed it reduced violence, as has been suggested, as well as easing anxieties with the prisoners who were able to maintain a more regular contact with their family, in his case his daughter. All well and good, ex-prisoner, but then, perhaps you should have considered your family and daughter before getting yourself into the position of actually getting a jail sentence?  

 

 

 Perhaps it might be fair to say that your views were broadly similar to the seconded Officer, whom then ‘softened’ with some reluctance after seeing matters first hand. He changed his mind... I don’t see the problem with having a phone in a cell. The meta data is collected and the content is there and accessible for intelligence purposes if an objective basis in law can be found to access it.

 

What is wrong with a prisoner calling a loved one when needed? I can’t imagine being banged up and if I was engaging in logical thinking I wouldn’t want to speak with loved ones too much in case they were worried.

 

But many prisoners are vulnerable. They self-harm. They commit suicide. If they had access to a phone, would such individuals engage in such behaviours with such frequencies? I doubt it.

 

One of the best documentaries I ever saw was about the wickedly cunning and utterly British efforts of our intelligence services of accommodating German Officers at Trent Park and recoding everything they said. They treated them like human beings and didn’t dehumanise them but in doing so they made the Germans confront their own morals- leading to many realising that they had engaged in a criminal endeavour.

 

I am not saying that the situation is comparable but if you treat someone like an animal then they will act like one. If you treat someone with some humanity and respect then they are better placed to choose which path they want to follow.

 

The aim of prison shouldn’t just be about punishment. It should also be about ensuring that the person imprisoned has less chance of offending upon release than when incarcerated. If someone has been imprisoned, subjected to violence, exposed to drug use and perhaps exploited then that is not the right ingredients for reform.

 

 What surprised me recently when watching an excellent documentary recently about CPS Special Prosectors investigating / prosecuting an organised crime gang using drones to fly drugs into prison was that some people were actually purposely trying to get banged up in order to deal drugs. It is exactly the toxic environments of failed prisoners that encourages this- not nearly built nicks like this that encourage a more progressive regime. If you are banged up and have no hope, then you are vulnerable to being encouraged to take Spice or otherwise be radicalised by extremists spouting about the ‘redemption narrative’ that wipes out past transgressions upon conversion.

 

[David + 4,981]

1 hour ago, ParochialYokal said:

What is wrong with a prisoner calling a loved one when needed? I can’t imagine being banged up and if I was engaging in logical thinking I wouldn’t want to speak with loved ones too much in case they were worried.

As I say, if the prisoner loved and missed someone that much, that is something the inmate should have thought of before offending.

Keep in mind, you have to be going somewhat to get any sort of custodial sentence these days, so the person concerned would more than likely have had more than several chances to reform and didn't. In that, I find I have little or no sympathy at all.

Edited September 10, 2018 by David

[Zulu 22 + 4,574]

Parochial the German officers were not recognising their criminal behaviour, they were boasting about it to their peers. It is about time that society started to consider the victims. Of all the criminals that I have had the pleasure of putting away, I cannot think of one who had any thought for their victim. I cannot think of any who decided to go straight, and actually did it. They went into prison determined to make it as soft as they could, prepared to break any rule that they had to. The proposals will just be taken advantage of by the inmates.

The only prisoners,  I have known who wanted to change were one or two female offenders who decided that they should prioritise their children and in doing so recognised the errors of their ways.

Prison's should never be a soft option as inmates will only take advantage and manipulate the system for their own ends.