Lowdham Grange Induction Unit

Mr Martin Lile was a former soldier, and served in the Royal Green Jackets for twenty years before joining the Private Prison Service in 1994.  He served as a prisoner custody officer at HMP & YOI Doncaster for three years before arriving at Lowdham Grange in 1997, as one of five Heads of Operations responsible for the day-to-day delivery of the regime. In 2006, he became an Assistant Director and is currently responsible for prisoner residential accommodation and segregation. Lowdham Grange is operated and managed by Serco Ltd and was opened in 1998. It is a Category B, closed training prison for adult males and has an operational capacity of 504, which was increased to 628 and then with overcrowding, taken to 690 as a result of a recent building extension.


I understand you have an enlightened induction process in operation here, would you like to tell me about it?
Martin Lile (ML) When the prison opened in 1998, we had a wing dedicated to the arrival of all new prisoners. The induction process went on for about a week, but without dedicated staff, it was pretty much ad hoc. In about 2000 we improved the system by locating the process in the amenities building, this time with dedicated staff. Most of the prisoners arriving were only familiar with the public sector prison routines, but very few with those of the private sector and, in some cases, this was stressful. The new process started the minute they arrived at the gate; they were addressed as Mr, offered a cup of tea and if they arrived between mealtimes, a sandwich or a hot meal. After being made comfortable, documentation, property and a medical followed. More recently PSO’s require us to make a risk assessment within the first week of arrival, but we thought that too long a period to discover things about a prisoner. So we aimed to do a full assessment within hours of arrival.  One of the key things I do, is to represent the Director, Staff and the rest of the prisoner population in the opening address of induction.  Here, I take the opportunity to offer the idea of being a responsible prisoner, by highlighting the opportunities that are here, and balancing this with the reality of engaging in the regime positively rather than negatively.  I explain that whilst being thought of in a good way by HMCIP and Standards Audit, it is as important to us that prisoners buy into our Zero Tolerance on drugs, violence, mobile telephones etc, in order that we can all be safer at Lowdham.

What year would that have been?
ML The PSO came out in 2005, I think and that was when we started to smarten-up the way we managed our processes. We commissioned a dedicated induction wing with manager and staff who would start the process by going to reception to pick-up the new arrivals, introduce themselves and take them to the induction wing. The aim was to create the best possible atmosphere of respect and trust in the hope of a positive response from the prisoners and to remove any fears they might have. Some are very young and vulnerable, and during the week long induction process, we aimed to settle them down.

How did you, the company, go about modifying the mind-set of the average employee, that a prisoner is a criminal and has been sent to prison as a punishment and not be treated overly with care and respect?
ML We are a business, we do not just specialise in the custodial situations, we have a wide ranging business in many sectors, rail, air traffic control - whatever, where everybody is a customer. Serco as a company who tries hard to get that message across to everybody who works for them. The brief to new staff is to not start work thinking prisoners have to be treated similar to that on the TV series Porridge; we treat people as we ourselves would wish to be treated. They have been sent to prison as a punishment not to be punished.

I’ll have to think very carefully about that statement. (Long pause) Then staff selection could be a very tricky process because nearly all of us have pre-conceived ideas about crime and punishment. How do you go about it?
ML Basically, we look for people who can remain calm, well balanced individuals who can deal with a difficult prisoner on a one-to-one basis. Our staff mostly get used to our style very quickly and learn to appreciate the degree of respect on both sides. We do ‘cherry pick’ members of staff for duty in the induction wing because an extra bit of experience can sometimes help to hasten the settling-in process. It is not unknown to enlist the help of another prisoner known to have had a similar problem. Strangely you may think, some prisoners arriving in the private sector for the first time find it very strange that we give them the opportunity to be involved in what they will do within the regime and to be spoken to politely. They can really struggle with that. We let them know that what has happened in custody before is immaterial - here they start from zero and they should look around for what is on offer and make the most of it.

What about the facilities and equipment for the regime, what are they going to see when they arrive in the Induction Wing?
ML The first thing is, they might have to double-up, not ideal, but that is due to overcrowding. We tend to double-up in the Induction Wing more, compared with other wings. We try to get them into a regime activity after the first week and that might be education or they could use the gymnasium several times a week. We encourage them to see their families; a facility available in three hour sessions Monday to Friday, irrespective of their regime level. There are special rules for visitors at the weekends one hour for basic, two visits a month; standards have one hour at weekends as often as is possible and two hours for enhanced regime achievers as often as they like, all of this is subject to capacity limits. In the cell they have a telephone to call families and friends and that one thing, has a powerful influence in settling them down quickly and deterring them from the need to have mobile phones for example. We encourage them to spend time in the open air, perhaps a 45 minute walk around the exercise yard which is available two or three times a day. They don’t have to do it, it’s on offer.

Do you equip the prisoners with all the clothing and personal utensils they need?
ML We can supply every essential item they need, there is no question of that. But if a prisoner arrives here and elects to wear his own clothing; the vast majority are quite trendy, we have no problem with that, although we were cautious at first. We do, however, restrict the amount of clothing they have, within the rules of volumetric constraints.

Are there some items of clothing you do not permit?
ML We were concerned about jackets and sweatshirts with hoods, and then realised it was a fashion statement and we would need to keep-up with the times. We definitely do not allow shirts with, or hinting at, offensive messages. They have responded incredibly well and we like to think we are fostering the idea of being a responsible prisoner in return for being treated with care and respect. Prisoners need to stand-up to the mark and say to themselves that the staff and conditions here, like allowing me to wear my own clothes, so I should respond by being decent and appropriate…though, of course, not necessarily in those exact words.

How do you deal with the different religious and cultural needs of prisoners as they arrive?
ML  That is done very quickly. A member of our chaplaincy team interviews every arrival and between them, they come to an understanding about needs and availability. We
have never had any problems, we just encourage people to talk and they seem to find their own level of comfort very quickly. At the last count we had people here from sixteen or more different denominations. We also get an incredible amount of support from our psychology team. As I said a few minutes ago, we have handpicked staff to deal with the induction process, who know they have prisoners on their hands who have problems that need to be addressed immediately. Touch wood, it seems to work; we don’t have any incidents of violence on that particular wing; the worst thing that might happen is somebody shouting at another. The routine allows prisoners to settle down quickly.

We both know there are very serious concerns awaiting prison staffs sooner or later, like drugs, self-harming, bullying and offending behaviour; the list is not exhaustive. What effect does your Rolls Royce induction process have on prisoners’ future conduct?
ML We have a low incidence of violence and conflict. Currently we have about five or six incidents a month, compare that with some prisons I could mention, where it is not unknown to have five or six each day! I put that down to the ability of our staff to deal with issues before they get out of hand. The style we use in our induction process is not unlike that used in the prison as a whole. When the men see what is available and appreciate being spoken to and treated decently by the staff, it allays any fears they might have and allows them to relax. This, I believe, fosters a positive attitude and they begin to ask themselves how they can make the best use of the time they have in custody. There are exceptions of course. We have about thirteen people here studying with the Open University aiming for a degree which, I think, is fantastic. We have an ongoing pilot, which we eventually hope will become prison-wide. It will allow the men, if they choose, to study in their cells at their own speed for a qualification rather than watching Coronation Street. We have the facility to enable prisoners to communicate via the in-cell telephone to families, wives and girlfriends; to be able to talk through issues, which in turn relieves a lot of worry and tension.

What about other indicators such as misdemeanours causing withdrawal of privileges?    
ML Most of the prisoners acknowledge the fact that we have a process here that works against the prisoner who does something wrong. We pride ourselves in taking a balanced view of such a situation and try to understand the reason. For instance, a single incident might be deemed OK, under certain conditions, but repeats will warrant a discussion on whether a sanction is appropriate. We have found that much better than putting people on adjudication on relatively minor charges. Adjudication is for really serious stuff and relatively low in number at Lowdham. Visiting district judges and independent adjudicators often comment on how few cases they have to deal with and they can get off to another location where they may be faced with 60 to 70 cases in a prison of similar size to ours. We like to think we have got the delicate balance just about right.

Is there anything that really bothers the management here?
ML After the last Chief Inspector of Prisons visited, her report focused on the problem of resettlement from here. Unfortunately some prisoners are sent to us at the tail-end of their sentences, rather than the beginning or middle and there is not a lot we can do, other than address a Public Protection Issues. In addition, most of the prisoners here are not from the local area, they come from London, Durham, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham. The people who look after the Population Management Unit are very good at what they do, but unfortunately the reality is that “Bobby Johnson”, at the end of his sentence, makes his way to Manchester and may have to look in vain for some help with his resettlement problems.

There has been yet another building project here recently. What will be the capacity of the prison on completion?
ML The new building will take us up to 888. We shall have an enhanced sized kitchen and the old kitchen building will be used to enlarge our works department. We will have an expanded civic centre, a small extension to the reception area, an additional 13 beds in the segregation unit - taking the capacity to 24 prisoners and enhanced facilities for vocational training. Finally, there is a small industrial store being built to hold some basic products.

Did the staff have an input during the design phase?
ML We were all consulted to a certain extent at our various levels and we were able to influence some of the decisions. Compared to wings J and K, for example, the new cells/rooms are slightly bigger and the shower drains are in different position - small things that have changed as a result of consultation with our building partners Skanska. The design makes the best possible use of the space available. After all, the prisoners who come here are long term, so we aimed for the best possible living area to make their life as comfortable as possible, but not palatial. It is a thoughtful process to get the balance quite right.

Thank you, Martin, for taking time out to speak with the Review.