General Chat

I also live a few miles from Ford prison and pass it about twice a week. Prisoners walking along the road. NEVER DO YOU SEE A PRISON WARDEN/OFFICER.

The chief inspector of prisons has delivered a fierce attack on the state of prisons in England and Wales after dozens of already full jails were told to take in more inmates.

Nick Hardwick warned of dangerous overcrowding and said it was down to a "political and policy failure".

All but six of the jails told to raise their "operational capacity" are at full capacity or overcrowded.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said the move was a "precaution".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27847007

The main problem is that most of our Prisons are severly overcrowed.

Wandsworth is supposed to hold around 950 and currently is close to double that amount and they and all others prisons have been told that they have to be prepared to take even more prisoners in.

I know several people who are prison officers, and if the overcrowding becomes even worse I fear for their lives. Overcrowding causes so much trouble. No matter who we are, as humans, we need our personal space around us. If no fights break out and with a long hot summer ahead of us, tempers flare even more.

Also, having visited a friend in Holloway, I would not wish prison on anyone. What no one tells you about is the noise and the smell. She said, after her first night (I saw her the next day) she was terrified. She was inside for 6 months for driving offences (she deserved what she got and she admitted that) but she was offered a place in an open prison, but it was in the north. She took it, even though she would not see her family much. Just to get away from Holloway.

No easy ride, I can assure you.

Ford prison is 15 minutes away from here..................it is slap bang on a main road, drive past and you can see prisoners wandering about, so easy for them to hop the gate, get in a car and go.

The fault lies with the type of prisoner that is placed in an open prison I think. Why are rapists, violent criminals and repeat offenders put in one in the first place :-0

I wonder who the government will attempt to pin the blame for this fiasco on - perhaps the police for arresting to many criminals or the courts for sending them to jail, one thing is certain, and that is government ministers will do a Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of any blame ;-)

Bloody Mary remembered.

In days of old, when a Minister of the Crown failed miserably, the Monarch would have them dragged off to The Tower of London, where they would have their heads chopped off - the thought of that fate might make them sit up and pay attention :-D :-D :-D

This had been going on for years.
My late husband was a Met Police Officer who retired in 1989,finishing his career in London Courts and there were many times that a prisoner was put on public transport to come to court...and guess what...they didn't all turn up.
My husband reckoned that after changing from the police in charge of getting them to court ,it was left to the CPS.he said that it should never have been changed.

Maybe this explains why so many serious offenders are ending up in open prisons - yesterday the government said the passport fiasco was because too many people were making passport applications, looks like too many prisoners are responsible for the prison system fiasco - of course neither has anything to do with government cuts ;-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27836961

The Ministry of Justice has ordered dozens of already full jails to take more prisoners because the jail population is increasing faster than expected, it has emerged.

Forty prisons in England and Wales have been told to raise their "operational capacity" in the next two months, according to documents seen by the BBC. All but six of these are running at full capacity or are overcrowded. They include Wandsworth in south London, Lincoln, Leicester and Durham.

The Ministry of Justice has yet to respond to a request for comment - that will be because the spin doctors need time to come up with someone other than government to blame :-D

I certainly do not think that a criminal, like Michael Wheatley "the Skull Cracker" who carried out an armed raid on a branch of the Chelsea Building Society in Sunbury-on-Thames while on the run, should ever have been placed in an open prison, he was serving 13 life sentences for a string of offences when he disappeared after being let out on day release, what kind of person did the authorities think they were dealing with, a shoplifter maybe, it beggars belief. Lets face it - in an armed raid people could have been killed :-|

Financial fraudsters, for example, usually have a few bob stashed away making flight a bit easier, perhaps.

As they were in an open prison, prior often to release. I just cannot fathom why these people would walk out.

Often only had a few months left to serve. Were doing community work, to get back in to the system.

Maybe the Open Prison system needs to be overhauled and only those who have committed non-violent crimes to be considered for this type of prison.

Once upon a time, governments purportedly represented their populace. This one of ours represents itself, its pals and its backers, and we pick up the tab.

Anyone out there with enough courage to turn off the tap on this disgusting shower? Or perhaps, Boris Johnson might like to try out one of his new toys by drenching that lot at next week's PMQs.

Imprisonment is a bad & expensive way to make miscreants change their behaviour. The alternatives are few, regrettably.

It's not nice to advocate a jail sentence for anybody, but it is vital that justice is administered in some form, evenly & fairly for all.

According to a BBC report there are around eighty nine prisoners on the run from Ford Open Prison in West Sussex. In a statement, Sussex Police said it did not proactively seek the help of the public or media every time a prisoner absconded, but considered each case individually, taking into account the risk.

The statement said: "There are currently 90 people missing from Ford Prison. Some have been missing for a matter of weeks but others have been missing for a number of years.

There has hardly been a week over the past couple of months, where there has not been a report of prisoners walking out of the front door of a prison, some of these individuals have been convicted for very serious offences, it was only a few weeks ago that one escaped prisoner carried out an armed robbery on a building society.

The current prison system is a total shambles and it is about time that the Secretary of State for Justice and his side kick the Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation got a grip on the situation.

It is one of the first duties of government to protect the public, in my opinion they are failing miserably doing this in respect of criminals who could pose a danger to the public, because they consider saving money is more important than protecting the public - they should get their act together and sort this ridiculous situation out, if they don't, they should do the honourable thing and fall on their sword :-|