Les Nicolles ‘does look after women and youngsters’
Thursday 20th August 2009, 1:00PM BST.
WOMEN and young people are well looked after in Les Nicolles prison, the Home Department assured islanders yesterday.
Chief officer Paul Whitfield spoke in response to a critical HM Prison Inspector’s report by Dame Anne Owers, which was released earlier this week.
It said the needs of women and young offenders could never be fully met in the current buildings and recommended the department consider alternatives.
Mr Whitfield said that the report’s advice would be followed as fully as possible within the constraints unique to Guernsey.
But he added that inspectors would always come to the same conclusions because they used a tick-box system normally applied to single-sex models in the UK.
‘If it was a modern all-girls school, everything would be designed specifically for females, from the range of education to the shape of changing rooms and facilities, and it is the same with prisons,’ he said.
Guernsey’s generic model could never be as totally sympathetic to their needs as a single sex UK prison.
‘But women and youths here are well looked after and all of their core requirements are met: they have access to what they need, from education to gym facilities and it is not inappropriate, unsafe or unclean.’
Guernsey’s prison held only a few women and youths at a time, he said, and usually only for short periods.
That compared with around 80 men. The groups were kept separate most of the time, but came together during communal events such as church services.
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Yes every effort should be made to cater for the unique needs of women and young people however it simply isn’t viable in an island the size of Guernsey to have separate facilities. The problem with having a review from the UK is that they look at everything through UK eyes, rather than from the perspective of a smaller community.
Although the current arrangement isn’t ideal, the only feasible alternative would be to ship youngsters off to Young Offender’s Institutes and women to specific women’s prisons in the UK. I doubt this idea would be welcomed though as it isolates the offenders from their families and friends who wouldn’t be able to visit so regularly.
Personally I think in the case of young people that more emphasis should be made on non-custodial sentences such as community service. Locking young people up will often only enable them to learn “tricks of the trade” from harder criminals.
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Paul Le P
Locking young people up will often only enable them to learn “tricks of the trade” from harder criminals.
I`d rather learn the tricks of the trade from the ones who haven`t been caught :)
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Maybe States needs to look at the costs of running the prison and see whether it is cheaper to send the female prisoners and children to England.
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My reasoning for the above: I say this because you cannot achieve economies of scale with small numbers of prisoners. For instance managerial salaries are often very high in comparison to basic staff who lock people up. Managerial staff only become cost effective when there are greater numbers of prisoners. A small prison cannot be cost effective.
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bcb – good point! However perhaps the ones that haven’t been caught don’t advertise their skills or run training courses? ;-)
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Paul Le P
However perhaps the ones that haven’t been caught don’t advertise their skills or run training courses? ;-)
Dont they??? What is it you would like to know? but mum`s the word :)
40/60 split deal?
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