£3m prison wing opens on time and within budget

£3m prison wing opens on time and within budget

This first phase to vastly improve overcrowded facilities at La Moye Prison, where inmate numbers reached a record 187 in 2003, is due to be followed later this year with the provision of a similar block for women.These improvements follow criticism in the first HMI report on the prison, in which it was claimed that some current amenities there would be unlikely to be human rights-compliant.Home Affairs Committee president Senator Wendy Kinnard said this week that the new enhanced wing offered appropriate facilities for prisoners in line with human rights standards.Each of the cells, the majority of which are single, have integral shower, washing and toilet facilities, as well as electric sockets for televisions which have to be rented by inmates, and other equipment.Prison governor Mike Kirby said the provision of integral sanitation in a cell had been standard in many UK prisons since 1995.

At present, if inmates in the rest of the prison, including women, need to use the toilet in the night they have to ring a bell and wait for staff to answer.Mr Kirby said the enhanced wing was for prisoners who had a year to go before being able to go on temporary work schemes or be tagged.’They are all on full-time work at the prison and have worked hard within the regime here to earn these privileges,’ he said.Paul Bradbury, who manages the new wing, said that three male prisoners who had been allocated rooms there had come from the vulnerable persons unit, where they had sought isolation for different reasons.Not convicted of sexual offences, they were offered and accepted a place in the new wing, where they will have their own rooms but mix with other prisoners who have behaved well during their term.

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