Prisoner surveys
Last week I blogged on the findings from the Scottish Prison Survey. Today I am sharing the findings from more than 7,000 prisoner surveys conducted by HMI Prisons for England and Wales and included in the Appendices to last week’s Chief Inspector of Prisons Annual Report. There are two Appendices dedicated to a summary of the views expressed by prisoners in the prisoner questionnaires which form part of every inspection. Appendix Five breaks down responses from male prisoners by ethnicity/religion, disability and mental health, age and sexuality. Appendix Six breaks down the views by gender including 6,308 questionnaire responses from male prisons and 694 from women’s institutions. The findings I reproduce below are for Appendix Six. You can read the Chief Inspector’s report in full here. All figures quoted relate to the individuals completing the questionnaires rather than the prison population as a whole. Readers should bear in mind that these questionnaires were completed last financial year, before the coronavirus lockdown.
Demographics
- 29% male respondents were from minority ethnic groups and 16% female respondents.
- 11% men and 10% women were in prison because they had been recalled.
- 58% women and 48% men had children under the age of 18.
- 7% women and 5% men were from traveller communities.
- 16% men and 5% women were Muslim.
On the wing
- 42% men and 32% women were not in single cells
- 89% of both men and women could get a shower every day
- 69% women and 63% men said it is normally quiet enough for them to sleep at night
Relationships with staff
- 79% women and 71% men said staff treated them with respect
- 82% men and 76% women had a personal officer
- 52% women and 45% men felt they were treated as an individual
Contact with family and friends
- 90% of both men and women were able to use a phone every day (if they have credit)
- 51% men and 43% had problems with sending or receiving mail
- Just 20% women and 19% men received weekly visits from families/friends
Time out of cell
- 19% men and 11% women spent less than 2 hours out of their cell on a typical weekday.
- These figures increased to 28% men and 15% women on weekends.
- 60% men and 56% women got association on more than 5 days per week.
- 47% men and 27% women went to the gym twice a week or more.
Healthcare
Access to healthcare was not straightforward as you can see from the responses below. Percentages in the first column relate to men’s prisons, those in the second to women’s.
Safety
- 49% women and 48% men had felt unsafe at some point in prison and 22% men and 16% women felt unsafe at the time they completed the questionnaire.
- 18% men and 16% women said they had suffered physical assault and 3% men and 2% women had suffered sexual assault.
- 24% men and 16% women said they had been threatened or intimidated by staff with 11% men and 5% physically assaulted by staff.
Education, skills and work
- 61% men and 59% women said it was easy to get education.
- 83% women and 79% men had accessed education in prison.
- 59% women and 49% men said it was easy to get a prison job.
Preparation for release
The table below shows what areas of help men and women said they needed to prepare for release and the extent to which they were getting help:
Finally, prisoners were asked whether their experiences in their current prison had made them less likely to offend in the future. 63% of women and 52 men agreed that they had.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the images in this post. You can see Andy’s work here.
