The Isle of Man is not actively planning to follow the UK’s lead and release prisoners early due to overcrowding.
That’s from the prison governor who says 24 temporary cells – in portable cabins – should help alleviate some of the current pressure.
The prison population has risen by around 66 percent; so what happens if the prison population peaks before the new cells - on 'J Wing' - are ready?
It’s a question Tessa Hawley put to Leroy Bonnick:
Hello, it's Tessa, one of the news editors here at Manx Radio, back with you for another episode of "Newscast". Today we're talking overcrowding at the Isle of Man prison and the introduction of temporary cells in portable cabins to help alleviate the pressure. And it's not just an island issue. It's believed more than 5,000 prisoners will be released early from prison in England and Wales as part of emergency measures to prevent collapse of the prison system there. Here on the island, prison governor Leroy Bonic told Manx Radio whilst it's not something being considered here, he does have the authority to enforce executive release if required. I sat down with him to find out more. My name is Leroy Bonicarm, the head of prison and probation service of the Isle of Man. Now last week you told an inquest that the population at that point stood at 137, capacity being 141. That's correct. What's the current tally? Where are we a few days later? So this morning we unlocked at 135 but we also have five prisoners that are out on what we call release on temporary license. These are law risk prisoners that are working in the community and are waiting, probably one or two of them are waiting there for all outcome from going in front of the brawl board. And how much increased pressure does that put on the prison? When the numbers are so high and when we're so near that capacity number, does it put additional pressure on the operation of the prison? Yes it does. But having said that, we are built to operate at 141 although in my time in the service it's very rare that you operate at your optimum. But having said that, we know just looking across the water there, what's happening across in the UK, most prisons are at capacity and are looking at additional accommodation to K to 4, the influx of prisoners coming through, prison doors at the moment. And the temporary accommodation and the temporary options are something that the Isle of Man has looked into and we know that we've got these temporary cells which have been created. When will they become operational? We have electricity into them now and everything else but there are key factors before they can be occupied such as an alarm system, a general alarm, CCTV and most of all the fire system that prior to me arriving here today were being tested and then from there we'll look at a search because when you've had that many people in the particular area from outside the prison, it has to be searched by our security team to say that it's habitable and prisons can obviously safely go in there. But we're working towards that in terms of where we need to be in terms of fully occupying that building. And we've obviously had an incredibly wet weekend and we know that they are sort of these portable cabins and you're like how did they cope with the weather that we've had over the weekend? No problem at all. I mean we did some research into this and I think I mentioned earlier in the conversation that the UK are going through similar issues with population pressures. So we did some research and these are tried and tested in some of the prisons across through the Ministry of Justice in terms of capability of holding prisoners. I mean we're talking low level prisons here that ultimately what we're looking at that will be occupying this accommodation will go out to work for most of the day and probably the most of the time they're spending their weekends. And we're talking low level risk prisoners that need little supervision on and at all. What happens if we hit that capacity and the new cells aren't ready? Well I'd like to think we don't but you've always got to plan for the worst. I do have the authority as a governor to obviously enforce what we call executive release and again prisoners with less than 28 days left to serve. They would be suited to be a risk assess but I'll quickly add that does not apply to violent offenders. Sex offenders would not meet that criteria in terms of being eligible to be considered. And I say you know that's a key word being considered you know there's a rigorous risk assessment that goes out that these people can safely be reintroduced back into the community. Now you know in recent times though we have released one or two and you know we're talking eight, ten days left in their sentence to serve in terms of I've not got to the situation where I've had to release somebody who still have 28 days remaining on their sentence. They're lower. We talk in weeks rather than you know. Obviously since the general election in the UK we've actually seen that that seems to be the way that the UK may look to go because we know that their prisons are over capacity as well. You've mentioned there that obviously it would only be considered where there's a very short term left to run. Would it ever be an option to release prisoners with more time left and have those conversations have you had to have those conversations yet about what could happen further down the line if the population just continues and continues to increase? I mean no we haven't had those sort of conversations that was just you know coincidentally alongside us having you know the additional accommodation I think as I said earlier we've explored this through the Ministry of Justice and I know they would have put higher category prisoners in some of these accommodations in some of the HMP prisons that I've actually explored where they were housing these sort of prison in this sort of accommodation so no in answer to your question it's not something that we're looking to do we're hoping that certainly in terms of the accommodation coming on stream and you know the way the courts are operating and what we do we project who's due for releasing discharges in the coming weeks months you know six months period and see and try and obviously stay ahead of the game in terms of managing the population pressures. Obviously at the prison at the moment all of the cells are single occupancy. That's correct. Why can't they be adapted into double occupancy to give us that extra capacity? Because there's a certain amount of space that is required for an individual to live you know in a cell and we can't meet that specification with the size of ourselves and only for you know single occupancy. Short term you know if you know somebody has to body up in terms of supporting another prisoner you know that's fine but you know long term you need two beds bunk beds that have to have furniture to store their clothing and such like so you know the way the cells have been designed there's a I don't know what the exact specification is but it has to be a certain size for it to be doubled up and we don't meet that specification. There's been a lot of criticism from different areas of society about the kind of push for the population growth that government wants to see. That's obviously despite the feeling for many people that the island's current infrastructure is creaking and that maybe the services can't quite cope. Do we actually need to build a bigger prison? In answer to your question we're talking about wanting to increase the island man population to 100,000 now that would in you know you talk about the infrastructure schools you know hospitals everything else that comes with that and unfortunately prisons are part of the community so in answer to your question you know we would need to consider that or factor that in long term if the population would increase to the 100,000 that we are looking to hit that target and have any conversations been had about how Derby could actually be redeveloped permanently have any conversations been had about perhaps building an extra wing or most definitely those conversations have been had because the temporary accommodation is exactly that you know but we have to look at long term in terms of future proofing in terms of a prison and you know the population increasing and unfortunately you know you do get some bad eggs in terms of any population that's increased so you know we have to future proof and look at the prison in that aspect and in that is conversations that I've had you know with my chief officer. There were some videos that were published by the Department of Home Affairs last week about the temporary cells. In one of them the Justice and Home Affairs Minister said that it was virtually impossible to do any meaningful rehabilitation work with people who were sentenced to custodial sentences of 12 months or less. Why is that? Years ago prisoners were going up to about four years in terms of sentences on average and within a year by the time you've done the assessments and obviously waiting time to get on to a course in terms of addressing some of your reoffending work it's just not long enough. There's a short time work but these things take time when you've got people for four years or over you've got a captive audience where you can plan do there are certain risk assessments you know there's psychiatric reports mental health and all of that takes time especially with the rising population you know and they have to be assessed their suitability to go on to those particular courses. Is there not a risk though that if we don't sort of work on that rehabilitation angle then somebody who maybe comes in for a shorter sentence might be actually more likely to reoffend when they go back into the community and then end up in that sort of revolving cycle of just coming back through your door? I've no doubt on that but you know we are looking and researching that with our forensic psychologist team and certainly the the probation team in terms of what we can do in the short term at least and whether some of this work is able to continue once they've gone back into the community you know if people want to engage in that so it's not something we've just put on the bad burner and we won't bother with you because you've got you know we need to look at the reasons what why you you know you came into custody in the first place and everybody goes to that initial assessment but you look at those long term and the plan for those and but it is something that's highlighted that we need to but that's you know an all criminal approach in terms of the people getting sentenced and is there an alternative to custody in terms of coming into prison that we could actually you know serve to the individual that one they don't lose their own they don't lose their job and then they're not dependent then on you know the island as a whole in terms of you know that the taxpayers burst because obviously when someone does go into custody they they likely lose a lot of the protective factors that they would have in the community so actually it almost becomes a double edged sword in some cases I guess and those are the key factors as you pointed out that actually goes quite a long way to obviously helping people to you know stop reoffending those are key factors it's in around about a 66 increase in population I mean as the as the prison governor does that concern you that it's that high we know that some of that has come from the the big focus on the drugs and the drugs cases you're the prison governor 66 percent does that ring alarm bells to you ultimately but you know we've a new chief constable in his you know plan to keep the island safe so I don't know a lot of that increase was as a result of the operation NYJAR so you know we had I say planned for it we were aware you know what was on the horizon so we can plan so much and and look at our population and plan ahead as I said earlier we do currently forecast in terms of people coming to the end of the sentences what's happening in the courts you know I know sentences usually chooses or thursers but business assume within business as usual within the courts and any given day you know we could have a couple of receptions so we do try and look at them plan but you know you can never you know have a hundred percent you know calculation on what's going to happen tomorrow thank you for making it to the end of the Manxeradian newscast you are obviously someone with exquisite taste may I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manxeradia podcasts at your favorite podcast provider so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone thank you (gentle music) You
