HMP Wandsworth - Doubling Up
 Dave Asker OBE of HMP Wandsworth talks to Steve Mitchell of Custodial Review
DA: Dave AskerOBE
SM: Steve Mitchell
SM Last time I was here you had just finished a new motorcycle repair training facility, you have now built another one! Why?
DA Our headcount has now reached 1665 and we have all types of prisoners including a substantial vulnerable prisoner population. We have already developed good training facilities for our main population and so we have now tried to mirror this for our vulnerable prisoners.
SM How many VP do you have here? And how have you gone about developing their facilities?
DA We have approximately 350 vulnerable prisoners, mainly in the older age bracket. The building involved used to be the kitchen, and it still had some of the notice boards from that era! It’s a large freestanding structure that we have divided into a range of different sized rooms. Within each of these rooms we have installed the smaller training units. The conversion to a multi-roomed facility from an open planned kitchen was done by the Training Centre staff and students with help on the major items from the Works Dept. In the new Motorcycle Maintenance Unit we have duplicated its function but on a much smaller scale. It has the same facilities as its larger sibling, the same tools, bike lifts and online access to maintenance manuals. We have followed the same principal with the other facilities too.
SM How did you choose what facilities to replicate?
DA Around a third of the VP population is elderly, so we have had to include facilities that provide training and work for an average age range that is higher than the standard prison population. To achieve this we created facilities that reflect this fact. We have provided a multiskills training area that teaches tiling and plumbing. A ‘Tools for Schools’ workshop that repairs garden tools and sends them out into the community. A new pushbike repair area that takes broken bicycles and fixes them, a radio station and a Fine Cell Embroidery Centre.
SM What is the Fine Cell Embroidery Centre?
DA We work with an organisation called Fine Cell who manage qualifications through the Open College Network. Fine Cell with the support of our College partnership, deliver qualifications in arts and crafts that include embroidery and IT. These qualifications are ideal for prisoners who are elderly and therefore have different interests and needs. This seems like a strange mix however everyone needs to know how to use a computer these days. The embroidery course teaches students to design the items using a computer and then transferring this plan to the stitching machine so prisoners are learning a practical application and computer skills at the same time. This workshop has just completed making all the cushions for the visits area. A quilt made by the prisoners was included in the recent exhibition at the Victoria & Albert museum. We have also produced embroidery for external companies. To do this they give us their requirements. Fine Cell design the piece and once approved they make the finished items on the embroidery machines. It’s not just another business it’s also something different that appeals to prisoners who have different skill sets. It has a qualification, not a high skill one, but can be a useful one, and it supports working together and good communication skills. It could be taken further with additional external training. This area was supported by OESS.
 SM What other courses and facilities are in this new facility?
DA The building sits within the garden area where we teach gardening and grow produce and flowers. The garden is not only for the Vulnerable Prisoners however that’s where the greenhouses and seed beds were based some time ago. We are continuing to win some really good awards for the gardens. This year we won a Silver Award at the Chelsea Flower Show. This was through our tie with the Eden Project who we work closely with. We also won ‘Wandsworth in Bloom’ and a more prestigious award called ‘London in Bloom’! During the competition we beat the prestigious Hurlingham Club and Capel Manor Agricultural College! It was all achieved by the hard work of the staff and 10 man prisoner team who run and work in the garden area. They put in a huge amount of work and were even out in the ice and snow that has been around for the last two weeks. When you consider we are a prison in a confined urban area with serious space limitations then it’s a magnificent achievement. They only have an area the size of a football pitch with a couple of greenhouses built out of what was available around the prison plus some hard landscaping that the brick laying course put in. The staff and prisoners took a concept from a magazine and developed it using the IT skills they had learnt in class. Transposed it onto the space available and then doing the groundwork, the hard landscaping, the paving, they created the flower beds and finally grew the plants. The award was for the garden they created in this new space and the rest of the prison gardens. One of the really satisfying things is that it didn’t cost anything to do!
CR What is the Media Centre all about?
DA We have a Media Centre in the new building where students can study for their NCFE award - the Northern Council for Further Education qualification. The facility is a fully equipped and sound proofed studio where students can make radio programmes that are then broadcast throughout the prison from our main Media Suite. Three prisoners work in there at any one time and they learn the skills involved in making a radio programme from scratch. The tutor is provided by our education partner Kensington and Chelsea College.
We won the Clarion Award which was an award for some of the work produced in that centre. They also carried out an interview with the actor Stephen Fry for the in house radio station called ‘Radio Wanno’ which is broadcast throughout the prison. The media centre produced the interview after we managed to persuade Stephen Fry to visit us. He is involved in the’ Toe by Toe’ reading project and they contacted us with the news that he was coming in to do some presentations for prisoners who had achieved success. Whilst he was here we asked him if he would also help our radio station by doing an interview. He visited again and did just that! The Media class planned and produced the interview and it was broadcast on the Prison Radio! He spoke of his own problems; he has done time and has suffered from difficult mental problems like many of the prisoners have. It was an in depth interview and Stephen Fry said it was on of the best ones he had taken part in.
 SM What is this Clarion Award? And what is it for?
DA IVCA Clarion Awards which recognises excellence in communicating the importance of CSR, diversity, sustainability, community development, ethical, health and welfare issues in the public, charity, social enterprise and corporate sectors.
We did submit an entry for the Sony Awards but we were not successful. The Clarion Award is an award for radio programmes. We won it because of the ‘Safer Custody’ CD that was made in the Media Centre. The Safer Custody CD is designed to give a new prisoner all the information we can provide them about the prison. It’s so the first few weeks, the most difficult ones, are less stressful.
SM You also have a bicycle repair shop in there. Is it an offshoot of a larger one elsewhere in the Prison?
DA No it’s not, we did have a similar facility in the main workshops but it wasn’t productive or engaging enough for the younger element. It is ideal for the elderly prisoners on the Vulnerable Prisoner wings. I obtained about 100 broken pushbikes from a local Police Station. We have fixed about 25 of them already, however I want to obtain an outlet for the repaired machines. Selling them is not allowed so I am talking to Banardos and our local council or looking to have them shipped aboard to help with foreign projects. It’s this sort of three way benefit that I like to create - the Police provide the bikes, we get benefits from repairing them so I wish to benefit others with their use. There is a lot to be learned from this type of repair work and it requires quite a bit of experience, hence the elderly prisoners are usually better for this type of work. A lot of the bikes are high quality ones but most have parts that can be interchanged with one another so we use one bike to repair another. We do also have some that are unique handmade ones. We have to take a view on repairing these as the budget for new parts is non existent. Sometimes we can get the parts for free. It’s amazing what some companies will do for nothing if asked to support a worthy cause! Sometimes they will send us kit on the proviso we don’t contact them for a while! - It’s the Shawshank Redemption Library story come to life!
SM How did you pay for and equip this duplicate motorcycle repair shop? Did Kawasaki put up the money for this one too, or did you ‘persuade someone’?
DA This was done by acquiring a batch of unused motorcycles and tools from another establishment who did not require the parts. They agreed that we could take what we needed so we took the lot! In all about 8 lorry loads were required to ship it. Amongst the kit we acquired was an unused 6 cylinder motorcycle with only 1 mile on the clock!
SM So for the cost of 8 lorry loads, phone calls, a load of elbow grease and considerable organisation you set up a training facility in a disused kitchen for a minimal outlay?
DA More or less. However, we also had assistance from Branston, the transport centre plus a huge amount of goodwill inside the prison. Now we have had a working, fully functional facility for the Vulnerable Prisoners open since October.
SM How do you ensure there are sufficient instructors, and how many can attend a course at one time?
DA We have one instructor there at a time. They are taken from the main workshop and seconded to the VP unit. We do this on a rota so that the skills and teaching are identical in each facility. There is also a lot of ‘homework’ to do as well so the technical side can be taught and revised by a prisoner working on their own. This requires a lot more planning but it’s possible and worthwhile. The new Institute of Motor Industry course takes two months. We can have 5 people in the area at one time, so with the usual turnover we have here we can train a lot more than ever before.
CR Have you provided the same online facilities to enable study?
DA Yes, the manuals and training programmes are all available on the in-house computer system.
SM You have established a new catering area. Is it part of the VP unit and what is it for?
DA It’s a catering training area where all prisoners, not just the VP, can learn life skills which will enable them to learn to cook for themselves, their families and learn about a healthy diet and money management. All the prisoners who attend this course also get their Food Hygiene Certificate. We also teach Industrial Cleaning to high qualification levels, including the British Institute of Cleaning Science. So the facility can be used for that purpose too.
SM What is the Job Club? And does it apply to all prisoners?
DA We release between 180 and 200 prisoners a month now. This is a 50% increase on the same period 2 years ago. It’s now even more essential that they get as much access and help into jobs or further training or Education upon release. When I first took over the role of Head of Learning & Skills I did not consider we were doing enough for prisoners coming up to release. So we formed the Job Club with the help of an organisation called Virtual Campus. Here we can enable those prisoners, with six or less weeks left to serve, access to information about the jobs, voluntary work and the training available in the area they will be going back too. They can find out about employment, pay, and send a CV. They can phone them and discuss the job and also make full disclosure. This is an essential tool in getting a role that puts them on a positive pathway for the future. For me it is pointless doing all the work to get prisoners trained and ready for work unless we can help them into it once they leave the gate! To this end our Employment, Training and Education Manager, Julian Hosking has been making major inroads into the industries in the surrounding area. For instance, he has recently made good contacts within a major coffee house chain.
CR What other schemes have you just got underway?
DA There are a couple of projects I have on the back burner!
CR So someone somewhere is about to get a letter asking for something in exchange for feeling good about their actions?
DA They already have the letter, I’m just waiting to hear back!
CR Dave, thanks for talking to the Review!
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