Hull Prison (Hansard, 18 October 1993)

§ Mr. Burden
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what purpose the special unit at HMP Hull created to house category A inmates was built; when it opened and how many inmates it was designed to hold; how many inmates it held at opening; how many it has held to date; how many it held 12 months ago and how many it holds at present.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
Responsibility 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 D. Lewis to Mr. Richard Burden, dated 18 October 1993: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the Special Unit at Hull Prison. The Special Unit opened in 1988 to hold long-term adult male prisoners in category A and B who have a history of disruptive and aggressive behaviour. The Unit is located on A Wing in Hull which can accommodate 20 prisoners under normal prison conditions. However, given the special role of the Unit, the number of prisoners held would not normally exceed ten. On opening, the Unit held four prisoners. To date 47 prisoners have been located in the Unit, for varying lengths of time and some prisoners have left and returned for a further period. In October of last year, ten prisoners were held on the Unit and the Unit currently holds five prisoners.

§ Mr. Burden
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what monitoring has taken place of the workings of the special unit for category A inmates at HMP Hull, what evaluation has been made of its success; and what plans he has for the future of the unit.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
Responsibility 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 D. Lewis to Mr. Richard Burden, dated 18 October 1993: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the Special Unit at Hull Prison. A report evaluating the Hull Unit was completed at the end of 1991. It was prepared by Professor Norman Jepson and the late Mr. Kenneth Elliott, formerly of Leeds University. The report covers the first 2½ years of the Unit. A further assessment, to study whether the existence of this Unit and the other Special Units have had a beneficial effect on the management of long-term prisoners who present persistent control problems in the context of the long-term prison system as a whole, is currently being undertaken by Professor Keith Bottomley. His report is due at the end of the year and will subsequently be published. He will draw on all previous work which has been undertaken and will also have access to work carried out by the Unit's psychologist. We will wish to consider Professor Bottomley's report before making an informed judgement on the long-term future of Hull and the other Special Units.