New governor on the block

PAUL Ferguson was 26 years old when he committed suicide. Jamie Thomas, 22. Adrian Payne, 26. Philip Webb, 25. They all hanged themselves while at Winchester Community Prison.

Young weren't they?

Behind each name lies a period of unspeakable anguish during their mental decline, before they finally decided to end it all.

Yet these men are not the only ones.

A total of 15 Winchester Prison inmates have committed suicide there since January 1997.

Nationally, more prisoners are killing themselves than ever before.

The prison population reached an all time high of 66,736 last month, up over 20,000 in the last ten years.

In the same time scale, the number of self-inflicted deaths in custody have more than doubled, from 37 in 1988 to 91 in 1999 - with unsentenced prisoners found to be most likely to take their own lives.

Yet Winchester's tally still stands tall among its peers.

Mark Oaten, the city's MP, believes its inmates are five times more likely to commit suicide than the rest of the jail population.

And he is deeply unhappy about conditions in the hospital wing and the suicide watch area.

Winchester is a local prison, with around 580 inmates, where there is a very large mix of prisoners - remand, convicted but unsentenced, life, long, medium and short sentenced, the mentally disordered and women.

The constant bustle of inmates entering and leaving - with thousands passing through the gates each year - is thought to be one of the reasons for the jail's high self-inflicted death rate.

One of the key problems is that an inmate's medical file can take weeks to catch them up when they are transferred, with the result that staff are often working blind at a time when it's widely acknowledged prisoners are at their most emotionally vulnerable.

The national problem of the rising number of suicides was the subject of a report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in 1999.

It found the prison service strategy "Caring for the Suicidal in Custody", introduced in 1994, had not been fully implemented across the country.

"There were serious deficiencies in the application of the policy, for example ignoring the need for case reviews, the absence of quality checks on vital documentation and inadequate training of staff," it said.

Because of it's tally, Winchester is one of five facilities currently implementing the 'safer custody project' to create safer cells with a reduced number of ligature points, crisis suites and cells that can be more easily monitored.

But Mr Oaten is still worried: "Having visited the hospital wing and suicide watch area I am left with the conclusion that the surroundings must be unacceptable to those working and being held there.

"The suicide rate is clearly unacceptable and although reception systems are being improved I remain concerned that prison officers are able to get accurate and speedy medical warnings when prisoners arrive."

Unfortunately however, the suicide rate is not the facility's only problem.

In fact, the indications are that there have been a veritable handful of issues.

Winchester Prison was built in 1846, making it one of the oldest jails in the country.

Inside it's a truly, grim, Dickensian place.

It used to be a Category A facility, but was downgraded to Category B in 1996, resulting in the loss of a sizeable chunk of funding and a significant lowering in staff morale.

Prison officers have long been unhappy about staffing levels and there have been rumblings of industrial unrest.

A year ago, the governor of the women's annexe Rachel Whitehorn resigned after explicit letters to an inmate at another jail were found after she transferred to Winchester.

A month later prison doctor Sonia Dobbie, resigned after letters she had written to an inmate at Winchester were also found.

Then, at the beginning of the year, a group of around 50 asylum seekers were moved into the prison.

Mr Oaten says he was originally told the duration of their stay would be just five weeks, but this has now been extended indefinitely.

Many of the group can't speak English and they are rubbing shoulders with inmates, who are either on remand or who have been convicted of serious crimes.

Action groups have vigorously lobbied to stop people, who are completely innocent of any crime, being held in custody.

Mr Oaten is pushing for their removal.

"The loss of Category A status was a serious blow to staff morale and, while the current governor is doing all he can to tackle these issues, I believe the prison is under-resourced and under considerable pressure which is not eased by the burden of asylum seekers," he said.

"I've had concerns about the prison raised by staff, prisoners and, with my own eyes I have seen a prison in serious need of refurbishment and building improvement.

"Education is vital in prisons if we are to break the cycle in re-offending. The prison has some creative schemes which could flourish if the staff providing them were given more resources and support."

So who could have possibly wanted the job of governor of Winchester Community Prison when it came up for grabs last year?

"I did," says Jim Gomersall.

"I wanted to work in a jail with both male and female prisoners and Winchester's female wing is one of the largest in the prison service.

"The environment is that if we don't deliver, this jail will be put up for market testing."

Mr Gomersall came from Spring Hill open prison in Aylesbury, which has a reputation by trying to rehabilitate its inmates.

The 51-year-old sees the opportunity to stop the drift, although that is not a word he would use, and get the jail moving in the right direction.

Money has now been allocated to re-design the reception area, health care centre and build a mental health department, complete with first night and detox suites.

He believes links with NHS mental health service have improved - the only problem now being the lack of beds in Hampshire for the seriously mentally ill because of underfunding.

Relations with staff are gelling and the high sickness levels, an indicator of problems, are beginning to drop.

Mr Gomersall is radically altering the way the staff work, changing the shift patterns to allow them more control over what they are doing.

Staffing levels are to drop from 190 to 172 uniformed officers.

"The staff are not entirely happy about it, but we have a closer working relationship. My priority is the staff because without them you can do nothing.

"I want to give the staff a share in the future of the wing in which they work, deciding how they operate the programmes I want to introduce."

The Board of Visitors report for 2000, covering the period largely before Mr Gomersall was in charge, came out last month and contained strong criticisms.

Mr Gomersall says many of those issues, such as staffing, were being addressed by his changes.

He wants to make prisons work; places not simply where criminals are punished, but where they can be steered away from the path of crime to lead productive lives.

The female annexe, called West Hill, is earmarked to have far more therapeutic work to help inmates challenge their past behaviour and maybe repair the damage.

The profile of Winchester will be raised too. Links will be forged with the outside.

Drama is a key tool in helping prisoners. "It can have a dramatic effect on inmates, it can change their lives," he says.

Despite the jail's problems, Mr Gomersall is positive about the future. "There is a growing sense of enthusiasm. It is slightly coupled with doubt. The prison service has a history of proposing initiatives that don't happen and people do get disillusioned.

"But I think we are moving forward. To get a cultural change of trust, openness and honesty we need to be knowing the place is moving forward. The staff have indicated a willingness to change. I think the Prison Officers Association needed a person they thought was going to stay around, someone they could trust."

This is fighting talk.

But the long-term funding problems are unlikely to go away.

And until mental health becomes more of a priority within the NHS - which looks unlikely - it's possible prisons will continue to be something of a dumping ground for people society would probably rather not think about.

Its inmates may have offended, but they surely still have the right to a decent standard of care.

And with such a high proportion of inmates suffering from some sort of mental illness, we should perhaps ask ourselves to what extent we are turning a blind eye to a vulnerable underclass which deserves support, instead of being swept under the carpet?