>Several offenders released on license said they had not been fitted with an ankle tag – with one describing it as “a disaster waiting to happen”.
>One probation officer said the delays in them being fitted appeared to be due to a shortage of tags, while the Ministry of Justice said it was due to a backlog of former prisoners.
>The MoJ blamed security contractor Serco – which manages the prison tagging system – for the delays. Serco said it was working to reduce the numbers waiting for tags.
>Prisons minister Lord Timpson is having what the MoJ described as an urgent meeting with Serco about the issue later this afternoon.
Another private contractor being unreliable. Colour me surprised.
At least they have the excuse of not expecting this many releases, but this would have been warned about in advance surely?
Melissa_Foley on
It’s fascinating to compare my own country’s situation to Britain’s. Ireland, like you guys, is a society utterly falling apart at the seams, that can’t even get the absolute basics right – take this example: prison sentences. We are two countries that are now incapable of managing a prison system, FFS. Added to our shared woes RE housing; cost of living; declining quality of life, and we are quite similar in so many respects.
The difference? While the British government talks about hard times, a 22bn black hole, financial ruin, Ireland is experiencing an eye-watering budget surplus and (until very recently) rocketing GDP figures.
When you compare the two economies on paper, and see how polar opposite they are, and then compare the two societies in real terms, and see how both nations have utterly collapsed, you begin to realise this is all orchestrated by our respective governments. To what end, I can’t begin to guess at.
Revolutionary_Box569 on
I get that there are going to be administrative fuck ups anywhere but it does seem to be the norm rather than the exception here
lookatmeman on
Couldn’t afford prisons so we let them out, couldn’t afford ankle tags so we didn’t bother. We’ll end up like south africa soon can’t afford to build power stations so we’ll sometimes have no electricity.
Happytallperson on
I think there’s been a general ignoring in the press of just how bad things have got in the prison system. Chris Atkins’ ‘A bit of a stretch’ really sets this out starkly, and that was 5 years ago. Things are on a downward trend.
The theoretical capacity of around 85 thousand is not the actual capacity. The system has been total chaos for years, a more realistic actual capacity if you want to do rehabilitation and provide the services needed so people have stability on release is probably several tens of thousands below that.
The early releases are the only option for the government at this point, but it’s going to be a shitshow because we don’t have capacity in probation to manage it, we don’t have the ability to get people housed, and also these people have been in 23 hour lockdowns in violent drug infested (and cockroach, rat and lice infested) prisons with no rehabilitation work done.
The system does not have a quick fix. It needs significant investment to rebuild it, and also whilst that is happening serious thought has to go to just sending less people to prison for less time. Otherwise the chaos won’t stop.
TankBenchpress on
This is what happens when you take a political decision that can’t translate well to the real world and the people who should be telling you “no we cant” dont do it because they like their contracts and there’s no real chance of them losing their contract if they lie just so you cam go ahead with your plan.
If this does go wrong and something does happen because of the lack of tags…who will be held responsible? Or will it be one of those cases where they wilk say it was a mistake and they will try to do better?
6 Comments
>Several offenders released on license said they had not been fitted with an ankle tag – with one describing it as “a disaster waiting to happen”.
>One probation officer said the delays in them being fitted appeared to be due to a shortage of tags, while the Ministry of Justice said it was due to a backlog of former prisoners.
>The MoJ blamed security contractor Serco – which manages the prison tagging system – for the delays. Serco said it was working to reduce the numbers waiting for tags.
>Prisons minister Lord Timpson is having what the MoJ described as an urgent meeting with Serco about the issue later this afternoon.
Another private contractor being unreliable. Colour me surprised.
At least they have the excuse of not expecting this many releases, but this would have been warned about in advance surely?
It’s fascinating to compare my own country’s situation to Britain’s. Ireland, like you guys, is a society utterly falling apart at the seams, that can’t even get the absolute basics right – take this example: prison sentences. We are two countries that are now incapable of managing a prison system, FFS. Added to our shared woes RE housing; cost of living; declining quality of life, and we are quite similar in so many respects.
The difference? While the British government talks about hard times, a 22bn black hole, financial ruin, Ireland is experiencing an eye-watering budget surplus and (until very recently) rocketing GDP figures.
When you compare the two economies on paper, and see how polar opposite they are, and then compare the two societies in real terms, and see how both nations have utterly collapsed, you begin to realise this is all orchestrated by our respective governments. To what end, I can’t begin to guess at.
I get that there are going to be administrative fuck ups anywhere but it does seem to be the norm rather than the exception here
Couldn’t afford prisons so we let them out, couldn’t afford ankle tags so we didn’t bother. We’ll end up like south africa soon can’t afford to build power stations so we’ll sometimes have no electricity.
I think there’s been a general ignoring in the press of just how bad things have got in the prison system. Chris Atkins’ ‘A bit of a stretch’ really sets this out starkly, and that was 5 years ago. Things are on a downward trend.
The theoretical capacity of around 85 thousand is not the actual capacity. The system has been total chaos for years, a more realistic actual capacity if you want to do rehabilitation and provide the services needed so people have stability on release is probably several tens of thousands below that.
The early releases are the only option for the government at this point, but it’s going to be a shitshow because we don’t have capacity in probation to manage it, we don’t have the ability to get people housed, and also these people have been in 23 hour lockdowns in violent drug infested (and cockroach, rat and lice infested) prisons with no rehabilitation work done.
The system does not have a quick fix. It needs significant investment to rebuild it, and also whilst that is happening serious thought has to go to just sending less people to prison for less time. Otherwise the chaos won’t stop.
This is what happens when you take a political decision that can’t translate well to the real world and the people who should be telling you “no we cant” dont do it because they like their contracts and there’s no real chance of them losing their contract if they lie just so you cam go ahead with your plan.
If this does go wrong and something does happen because of the lack of tags…who will be held responsible? Or will it be one of those cases where they wilk say it was a mistake and they will try to do better?