§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide details of the criteria used by the Prison Service when allocating prisoners to open rather than closed prisons.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 26 May 1993:
723WThe Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the criteria used by the Prison Service when allocating to open prisons.
Guidance to Prison Service establishments explains that all adult male prisoners (apart from those regarded by headquarters as requiring high security conditions, and life sentence prisoners, for whom separate allocation arrangements are made) should be regarded as probably suitable for an open prison unless they are sentenced to a term of over 12 months for any violent offence, are convicted of any but the most minor sexual offence, had previously served a sentence of over 12 months for such an offence and had not successfully remained for part of that sentence in an open prison, have current or previous convictions for minor or serious drugs offences, or have a recent history of escapes or absconds. Prisoners who come within these criteria, would be placed in a security category which would require them to be held in closed conditions. Having decided security categorisation, the local prison then must decide on the establishment to which the prisoner should be allocated. Allocation decisions take into account the need for security and control, the need to make best use of the Prison Service estate and the needs of the individual prisoner.
Separate guidance applies to male young offenders and female prisoners. But the approach is similar in that an assessment of risk is made on the basis of information on the current and any previous offences before deciding on the appropriate establishment to which the inmate should be allocated.
With the passage of time or changes in circumstances, many prisoners become less of a risk and less likely to try to escape. Some long term or life sentence prisoners may merit downgrading to a lower security category more than once. A prisoner who was originally allocated to a closed prison may therefore be reallocated to an open prison at a later stage in his or her sentence. I hope this has provided a helpful summary of the approach we take to allocation. But if you woulds like to have more information, I should be pleased to provide it.