History > 2006 > UK > Prison (I)

10am

Fugitive figures

add to Home Office woes

Monday May 22, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies


The home secretary, John Reid, was under further pressure today after it emerged that hundreds of inmates, including murderers and rapists, have absconded from an open prison since 1999.

Prison Service figures show that offenders have been disappearing from Leyhill open prison, in Gloucestershire, at the rate of more than one a week.

It is the latest in a series of damaging revelations which has left the Home Office reeling in recent weeks. Over the weekend, further embarrassments to the crisis-hit department were revealed.

Yesterday the Home Office refused to apologise for wrongly labelling 2,700 innocent people as criminals because of errors in the Criminal Records Bureau that identifies whether people have convictions. In a separate issue, the shadow home secretary, David Davis, has tabled a series of questions about allegations that an immigration official offered to help an asylum seeker stay in Britain in return for sex.

Robbery and burglary offenders were the main absconders from Leyhill prison but 22 murderers and seven rapists have fled since 1999. The figures were obtained by David Laws, the Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil, after local police told him there had been mini crime waves in the area by criminals on the run.

Leyhill is one of 13 open prisons in England. The figures showed that 393 prisoners absconded from Leyhill between 1999 and 2006. The Home Office last night refused to reveal absconding rates for the other open prisons.

Mr Laws said the figures were another example of the "shambolic state" of the Home Office.

"Murderers, rapists, burglars, robbers are escaping from this one prison at the rate of almost two a week. Serious criminals who should be locked up are getting out to commit extra crimes," Mr Laws told the Daily Telegraph.

A Home Office spokesman said that open prisons like Leyhill played an important role in the resettlement of offenders as they approached the end of their sentences.

"The aim of this is to reduce reoffending and ultimately to protect the public. All prisoners undergo a thorough risk assessment before being considered as suitable for open conditions," a spokesman said.

"Absconders can be criminally charged and a number of prisoners have received additional custodial sentences.

"Public protection is paramount and prisoners at Leyhill are returned to closed conditions when our risk assessments indicate likely non-compliance," he added.

The disclosures came as ministers and officials continued to grapple with the fall-out from the foreign prisoners deportation fiasco, which has been going on for weeks.

To add to their difficulties it was disclosed that 232 foreign nationals arrested in counter-terrorism operations had been allowed to remain in Britain as asylum seekers - including 18 who had only applied for refugee status after their arrest.

And the Home Office is continuing to investigate claims that five illegal immigrants arrested after being sent to work at the Immigrations and Nationality Directorate's central London offices had been employed on the service's premises for years.

It is all likely to ensure that Mr Reid will face a rough ride when he appears this week before the Commons home affairs committee for the first time in his new role.

The errors by the CRB led to ordinary people - from court ushers to students - being wrongly identified as pornographers, thieves and violent robbers. In some cases, people were turned down for jobs or university places while others had had to be fingerprinted at their local police station to prove that they were not criminals.

The Home Office took a defiant line - describing the errors as "regrettable" but insisting that no mistakes had been made and refusing to apologise. It said that the problem had arisen from checks carried out by the CRB on people applying for jobs working in positions of trust with young people and vulnerable adults.

In a "tiny proportion" of cases, there had been "mismatches" with people who had details that were similar or the same.

"We make no apology for erring on the side of caution. We are talking about the protection of children and vulnerable adults," a spokesman said.

There have been no immediate calls for the resignation of Mr Reid, who has been in the job for barely two weeks following the sacking of his predecessor, Charles Clarke.

However, he is under pressure to sort out the problems of what has long been regarded as Whitehall's most difficult department.

Those problems were underlined by the disclosure that an officer had been suspended at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate centre at Lunar House in Croydon, south London.

According to the Observer, the man offered to coach an 18-year-old Zimbabwean woman - who had previously been the victim of rape - for her asylum interview in return for sex.

Only last March, an internal inquiry cleared staff at Lunar House of claims they offered female applicants visas in return for sex, although it found that there had been "isolated incidents of unprofessional behaviour".

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times disclosed that of 963 foreign nationals arrested in counter-terrorism operations since the September 11 attacks in 2001, 232 had been allowed to stay on as asylum seekers.

    Fugitive figures add to Home Office woes, G, 22.5.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,1780497,00.html

Foreign prisoners scandal deepens

as Reid revises figures

Tuesday May 16, 2006
Guardian
Alan Travis, home affairs editor


A convicted murderer has still not been traced three weeks after the foreign prisoners scandal was disclosed, the new home secretary, John Reid, admitted last night.

He is among a group of nine foreign prisoners who were convicted of "most serious offences", including manslaughter, rape and child sex offences, who have yet to be tracked down by the authorities after they were released without their deportation being considered.

In newly revised figures given to the Commons yesterday by Mr Reid he said the number of serious offenders - defined as armed robbery and worse - freed without being considered for deportation had now risen to 179 from 150 last week.

The sacked home secretary, Charles Clarke, put the figure at 79 out of the total of 1,023 released without being considered for removal when he admitted the scale of the scandal three weeks ago.

The outdated figures published yesterday disclosed that 57 of the 179 serious offenders have been convicted of fresh crimes after their release - 19 of which involved violence or a sexual element.

The official total for the number actually deported remains at only 20 out of the original 1,023 although removal proceedings have now been started in 649 cases.

"I have widened the definition of serious offences to include all cases where there has been any conviction for offences involving violence or a sexual element. This includes armed robbery," said Mr Reid, explaining the changing figures.

"As the operation has progressed, detailed examination of the case files and other records has to date identified 179 offenders who had previously been convicted of a serious offence."

He said that 35 of the 179 had been originally convicted of the "most serious offences" defined as murder, manslaughter, rape and child sex offences. Three of the four murderers had been traced as had 23 of the 31 other most serious offenders. So far eight of them had been convicted of new crimes since their release but none involved violence or had a sexual element.

A Home Office spokeswoman declined to give further details on the untraced murderer. It is believed he is among the initial group identified. He should have been easily contactable by the authorities as he is supposed to have been released on a "life licence" and subject to recall to prison at any time. So far only 55 of the remaining 144 serious offenders have been brought "under the control of the authorities" or deported.

Mr Reid said the priority remained dealing with the most serious cases first but he declined to give a timetable for the automatic deportation of those who had served "significant custodial sentences".

He said his investigation into the foreign prisoners fiasco was uncovering deep-rooted problems in the criminal justice system which required urgent action.

    Foreign prisoners scandal deepens as Reid revises figures, G, 16.5.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,1775619,00.html

12.30pm

'Prison not working' for young offenders

Monday May 8, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Matt Weaver

Re-offending rates among young prisoners are so high that alternatives to custody should be considered in all cases, according to a new report today.
The study (pdf), by the Howard League for Penal Reform, accuses the government of ignoring the resettlement needs of young offenders.

It points out that almost 70% of young offenders are reconvicted within two years of their release, yet they are given little help in prison, or on their release, to help them rebuild their lives.

It claims that the current lack of support means that sending young people to prison is putting the public at risk because it makes re-offending more likely.

It says: "Imprisoning young men at this critical stage in their lives can have a massively detrimental effect upon their development and their future life chances. Alternatives to custody should be sought in all possible cases."

It adds: "The criminal justice system should instead work to resolve conflict and repair harm. All must recognise that imprisonment, even for a short period, ruptures lives and the damage is often irreparable."

The report, entitled Out for Good, reveals the interim findings of a study that involved in-depth interviews with 86 men aged between 18 and 21, the majority of whom were serving sentences of less than a year.

Its author, Finola Farrant, said: "Sending these young men to prison does virtually nothing to ensure that they will live crime-free lives on release, or worse, it makes their re-offending all the more predictable."

The men were asked to say what would help them stop offending. Getting a job, a home and a girlfriend were three main issues identified.

As one 20-year-old offender put it: "If I was to stop committing crime I'd need a job, a place to live and settle down with a girl."

They also cited drugs and alcohol problems and family breakdown as barriers to reintegrating into society.

But the prisoners complained they were given little help to gain qualifications and secure housing while in prison. The study called for the prison service to recognise the needs and vulnerability of young offenders.

Commenting on the study, the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, also urged the government to address the needs of young offenders.

    'Prison not working' for young offenders, G, 8.5.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,1770221,00.html