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HMP Northumberland has been taken over by private firm Sodexo Justice Services. (2 December 2013)

Date: 02/12/2013
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, HMP Northumberland has been taken over by private firm Sodexo Justice Services.

HMP Northumberland is an amalgamation of two prisons in 2011 – the adult training prison HMP Acklington and HMP Castington, a former young offenders’ institution. The prison is based in Acklington, Tyne and Wear.

Sodexo Justice Services have been given a 15-year contract to run the 40-year-old prison, which holds Category C inmates, including vulnerable sex offenders. These are prisoners whom it is thought may try to abscond and who could not be trusted in an open prison.

However, Sodexo Justice Services claims that it can save taxpayers £129 million annually by cutting 200-380 prison jobs at HMP Northumberland. The private company has run prison services in the UK for more than 20 years.

A BBC report has quoted a local resident who lives near the prison as having concerns that HMP Northumberland had been put into the hands of a private firm.

Barbara King lives in Acklington Village and she told BBC News she was concerned about future security at the jail, especially if staffing levels are not maintained:
"We've got an elderly population in the village – it doesn't really bear thinking about the repercussions of reducing staffing levels,” said Mrs King.
“How are they now going to control these prisoners if they are going to reduce the staff – who is going to supervise the prisoners?”
Sodexo has issued a statement saying that the reduction in staffing levels would “in no way compromise” security at HMP Northumberland. The company added that efficient management of the prison would be maintained, as well as a regime which promotes the rehabilitation of offenders.
Joe Simpson of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said that he believed reducing staff numbers might lead to more breakouts from HMP Northumberland.

Mr Simpson also said reducing the number of prison officers might lead to riots, as were seen at HMP Maidstone and HMP Rye Hill near Rugby in Warwickshire in November, when a shortage of prison staff meant some prisoners were confined to their cells or allegedly missed out on perks like TV, educational training or exercise.

Mr Simpson said:

“We're talking about prison staff who are going to go away from the supervision of prisoners. There could be a riot and someone escaping – that's the worst case scenario.”

A report in November 2012 found that one-third of prisoners at the prison were left in their cells all day with little to do. Inspectors who visited HMP Northumberland criticised the way in which training programmes for prisoners were run – Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick said that leaving prisoners in their cells all day with little to do during working hours was “inexcusable”.

The inspectors – who visited for the first time in June 2012 after the two prisons were amalgamated into HMP Northumberland in 2011 – found satisfactory levels of management regarding dealing with safety and self-harm; and also reported many of the prisoners felt safe in the prison.

HMP Northumberland houses around 1,300 inmates.

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