Prison attacked for 'hard' image

Dartmoor: "The prison that time forgot"

Inmates at Dartmoor prison are routinely abused and degraded by officers desperate to cling to the jail's "hard" image, says a damning official report.

Prison inspectors were concerned to find officers locking suicidal prisoners from the segregation unit in an "appalling" wire mesh cage even though the governor had ordered them to stop.

The visitors said they discovered the cage with "disbelief" and described it as "ritual humiliation". The prison says the cage is no longer in use.

Prison officers described inmates as the "rubbish" of the prison system and "vermin".

Dartmoor felt like the prison that time forgot

Anne Owers

The report by chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers described the 700-inmate jail as "the prison that time forgot".

Ms Owers observed inmates in a cage and described it as "more appropriate for dangerous animals than for potentially suicidal medium-to-low risk prisoners".

She added: "When we reported our concerns about the cage, we were told that the governor had instructed that it be closed some weeks previously."

The report, which makes 108 recommendations for improvement, added: "We anticipate that action will be taken against staff and managers who disobeyed that order."

More than a third of inmates felt unsafe

In a survey conducted by inspectors, 6% of inmates at Dartmoor said they had been physically attacked by "someone other than a prisoner" - generally interpreted as assaults by warders. The national average is 3%.

Prisoners also reported widespread racism and victimisation, not only towards ethnic minorities but also towards the Welsh and men from the north-west of England.

Hard-hitting report

An inmate wrote in the survey: "Nothing is being done here about bullying and racism towards inmates, especially ethnic minorities.

"I would like this to be acted on and not just words please."

Ms Owers added: "Dartmoor felt like the prison that time forgot."

Director general of the Prison Service Martin Narey said he welcomed the "hard-hitting but perceptive" report which he said would "get under the skin of Dartmoor in a way previous reports never achieved".

He said Dartmoor had traditionally been seen as a "punishment posting" for some prisoners and he had expressed concerns about the regime last year, though some changes had been implemented since then.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is a cage - the use of which I cannot tolerate - but it was only used for temporary periods when prisoners were being interviewed."

Cuban comparison

But he added: "The change to Category C status and the leadership of the new governor will change that once and for all."

Director of the Prison Reform Trust Juliet Lyon said: "At a time when the US Government has been much criticised for violating human rights in its camp at Guantanamo Bay, the chief inspector's report on Dartmoor comes as a painful reminder that prisoners can be caged, degraded and abused in an English prison.

"How was the prison allowed to sink over a long period of time to such an unacceptable level?"

However chairman of the Devon jail's Prison Officers Association branch Trevor Horn said he failed to see why the report criticised staff so harshly.

"We do not bully and we are not violent towards inmates," he said.

"If they (the Prison Service) send us their problem children they are dealt with fairly and equally.

'Brilliant report'

"We had a brilliant report in 1997 and we have not changed in the way we do the job since then.

"We cannot recognise what they are talking about in this report."

Dartmoor's governor Graham Johnson, who arrived at the jail last June, welcomed what he called a "fair and balanced report", adding that criticism of staff behaviour had been challenged "robustly".

He added: "I do not make any excuses.

"I will not defend inappropriate behaviour".