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Issue 88 Spring 2023
YOUR LETTERS
I struggle to keep up with the number of dear colleagues who have passed away this year, so my list of contacts is contracting. One of the latest is Colin Honey; he was very wise and personable and fully committed to whatever role he currently held. I had quite a lack of contact with him when he was Head of Personnel and in those days all postings were strictly controlled by Headquarters. Whenever you were directed to somewhere you did not want go, probably due to schooling of one's children you could ask
for a personal audience with him. He had always thought out his reasoning and explained it carefully. Although never fully convinced, I always felt re-assured that there was logic to it, and felt better for being in his presence as he was committed to what was best for the Service. We kept in touch for a while after he retired, and it was always a pleasure to talk to him.
The other notable person to pass away in December was General Lord Ramsbotham, Chief Inspector of Prisons. He was a far better appointment than his predecessor; Judge Tumin, who on his inspection of Wakefield had raised the issue that the prisoners' phones installed had no screens. I responded, nor had the public ones at King Cross Station, and the noise level there was far greater than in the prison. We eventually had them fitted.
I had overlooked that he was the son of a Bishop of Wakefield; therefore, he had a rounded background. He was always confident and sure in his decision making, he also cared about the troops under his command. Michael Howard, then Home Secretary, had expected him to be less inclined to take the prisoner's part than Judge Tumin. His terms of reference required him to report to the home secretary on the treatment of prisoners. Anxiety amongst senior staff rose rapidly after a series of damming reports on conditions in certain prisons in the first 18 months of his appointment.
Why do I write about him? I feel I got to know him. Everyone knew of him by reports in the Newspapers. lt was the Whitemoor escape that was to be my first encounter with him. I went as NEC member of the PGA to support all the Governor Grades who were to be interviewed. He greeted me and said 'do ask any question you want.' His tone was friendly but firm. I sat through all interviews and watched the video recording. lt was clear that the three staff allocated to carry security checks on all movements to from the wings to the recreation and back area were just allowing free flow with no checks being undertaken.
The Governor grades were as appalled as was I when the evidence was produced. Rambo remained calm, never raised his voice and you sensed he was sympathetic to a degree, but in a top security prison, management had a high priority to ensure that all security procedures were strictly enforced.
An Inspection at Pentonville was scheduled for late 1999. Although the staff had worked hard to improve the regime we were just as apprehensive as any other prison. The team duly arrived and the Chief Inspector said 'Good to see you again but under different circumstances this time.' He then introduced his inspection team, but then added that Branwen Jeffreys, the BBC TV Education Editor, would be with us throughout, but is not as an inspector. I never did find out why this occurred, but she was quite chatty and fed back in general terms how the inspection was going.
I had been contacted by Christopher Morgan who was endeavoring to install the Reading Plan for Prisoners into every prison, to join him in the endeavor, which I did and along with Ron Curtis we developed a national structure. lt led to me being appointed to the official Steering Committee. On his retirement from the Inspectorate, Christopher also recruited David Ramsbotham; he had also just been appointed to the Lords. As usual he gave his time enthusiastically to both. He attended meetings and the conferences organised for the volunteers and knew contacts who would donate to the cause. So, I believe I got to know him very well and admired him. Wherever he served he cared about and wanted the best for those who served under him. The Prison Service gained so much during his time. So it was not just that he gave Pentonville such a good Report, Which I cannot resist repeating:
'There is a refreshingly 'can do' attitude' throughout HMP PENTONVILLE that is in marked contrast to what we have found in a number of other large, overcrowded, under-resourced, inner city, local prisons. This does not just happen, and I hope that the Governor and his staff will take pride in this very good report, which records the outcomes of their work in considerable detail. That a prison with such daily problems should win the Elton trophy for the best workshop in Prison Service, pioneer education for dyslexic prisoners, make successful advances in the recruitment of minority staff and develop suitable arrangements for foreign nationals, to name but four, is remarkable in itself, but also an indication of how the positive attitude is spread throughout the establishment. If this can be achieved in PENTONVILLE there is no reason why it cannot be achieved elsewhere.'
He always concluded his reports by resorting to the Prison Department to invest more financial support for rehabilitation programmes where he believed it was necessary.
Had a long chat with Jim Blakey on the phone; some will recall he suffered from pain in both his shoulders, which clearly affected his golf, but also made him anxious going up and down stairs. Fortunately he had a good Doctor who referred him to the local hospital for surgery. Jim says it was like a miracle having full use of both shoulders with none of the pain; it gave him a new lease of life. This was just as well as he remains the Chair of the committee for the local bowls club; during the long hot summer all the grass turned yellow and weeds sprung up. lt all had to finely raked and weeded. As the other members are not that enthusiastic, he had to set an example. He said he would make contact with Dave Simons and try to visit him. Dave advises me that 'Just getting going and then tested positive for Covid. lt knocked me sideways. Still not fully recovered although just passed clear again'. We all wish you a full recovery and our thoughts are with you.
Ron and Sue Curtis wrote in December that they were delighted that life was returning to normal, and then discovered that at Christmas travel restrictions prevented them from joining the family in the Netherlands to celebrate Christmas. So, on Christmas day they were on their own. They then joined Ron's family in Chichester for the youth theatre's production of 'Wind in the Willows'. This is a family tradition of many years which Ron's sister always arranged. As mentioned previously she was tragically killed last year in a road incident. This came to Court in the summer and the woman responsible found guilty of death by dangerous driving, and given a suspended sentence, not least because she was 94 years of age.
They have returned to their travelling again including Orkney which they love, it was as beautiful as ever, although still not recovered fully from the lockdown as regards facilities for visitors; and Newquay. Despite the dry summer Sue has kept the garden looking very colourful and receives many compliments on it. Sue has joined a local play reading group, and Ron a current affairs discussion group.
Their two grandchildren are now working; Matthew in a care home for experience and then he hopes to train as a paramedic. Joe is temporarily a waiter at Gleneagles Hotel (he does look smart.)
Mike Poselay sent a reminder that it is the 7th Anniversary of his new a career in the legal profession after he retired. He works as a consultant solicitor and enjoys trials in Magistrate Courts. My daughter Reena is also, a lawyer but in family law. He still lives in the same house in Walsall, which Chris Scott used to call 'Poselay Towers.' He has been in contact with Chris, and it appears his dementia has not worsened, but when he goes shopping he is given a written list, but still forgets it is there!
Sue and Colin Tanswell write, 'Another year rolls by, where does time go?' They say they are both suffering age wearying; 'Sue has never recovered from the side effects of chemotherapy or arthritic knees and is very restricted as to how far she can walk. I am suffering still from my fall off the ladder, four years ago, with balance problems which put me at risk of tripping or falling.' (I have much the same problem). Colin states he can still manage a gentle two mile walk twice a week; a far cry from lunch time running at PSC. 'We all had Covid quite recently but got over it quite well.'
'My son Gareth has now lived in Canada for almost nine years and is the General Manger of a Golf Course. My eldest son Martin still lives with us; it looks like he is here to stay! We were all hoping to go to Canada in September but were put off by the post Covid chaos at Heathrow. We re-arranged to go next spring but this is now delayed as our daughter in law has become pregnant, we are of course overjoyed to become to become grandparents for the first time. We hope to be able to visit this autumn. We all hope that the autumn trip will come to fruition.'
I hear that Veronica Bird has been approached by another film company to be an adviser on a prison documentary they are planning. More details as they emerge.
Let us hope the Government continues to bring down inflation, settles all the strikes, and those elected start to act professionally in the interest of the country and not like 'little tin gods' pursuing their own interests. Well, we can all wish.
BOB DUNCAN
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Dear Friends and Colleagues.
Good news. I have received a letter and it prompted me to write a letter myself so here they are at the at the end of the usual contribution from my/our very good friend Bob Duncan. Hopefully you are also following his serialised story of his autobiographical book to be found elsewhere in this publication.
Letter from: Jeff Woolhouse
The Strangeways Riot and My Even Smaller Part In lt
I was reading with interest Graham Mumby-Croft's account of his role in the Strangeways riot during 1990. lt reminded me of the small part I played at the start of the riot. I was watching the 9pm news on April 1st when the first item was the story of how the prisoners at Strangeways had managed to get on the roof of the prison and set alight to the wing. lt showed flames and fires on the roof and several prisoners with masks demanding reform. The prisoners had taken over a wing causing extensive damage.
I was at that time a works P.O serving at Full Sutton Prison. As I watched at the devastation taking place at Strangeways the phone rang. lt was my area Manager, Graham Harper, informing me that the staff at Strangeways had lost the prison and staff were being drafted in from around the region. The boiler house had shut down and there was no heating for the staff. At Full Sutton we had around 50 heaters that had been placed in the new quarters before the prison opened in 1987 and were now in storage. He asked could I get the works van and take the radiators to Manchester where they were to be used to heat the accommodation in the staff stand down area. Seeing this as a bit of an adventure, "ok", I said, "I'll be there in around 4 hours". "Good", he said, "there'll be staff there waiting for you".
I arrived at Full Sutton just before it was locked down for the night at 10.00pm. After collecting the van from inside the prison I went to the works which is positioned outside the prison to load the radiators in the van. Off I started with 50 radiators rattling away in the back of the van over the Pennines to Strangways Prison. All roads to Strangeways had been closed with Police control and on approaching the prison I was stopped by the police and told I had to turn around as there was a major incident at the prison. I said who I was and had been instructed to deliver radiators to the prison. "Oh! Mr. Woolhouse", he said, “we’ve been expecting you, follow the police car." I suddenly felt very important following the police car with blue lights flashing to the back of the prison. On entering a yard in the prison I was surrounded by works staff unloading the radiators and fitting three pin plugs to the radiators without plugs.
"Thanks mate", they said "we've been waiting for these." I was there for just 10 minutes and set off back across the moors to York wondering what would happen with the riot. lt turned out the riot lasted 25 days with 1prisoner killed,147 officers and 47 prisoners injured. lt was the longest prison riot in British prison history. Many reforms came out from the riot in the Woolf Report, including ceasing slopping out, in cell sanitation, single cells and the introduction of wing phones. All of which took many years to introduce. Whenever I hear about the riot at Strangeways, I always think of the works van with 50 radiators clattering away in the back going over the Pennines at midnight to do my very small part in the Strangeways Riot.
Another interesting event I can recall is hearing Graham Mumby-Croft at a works conference in the 1980's (year not known). lt was at the annual Works conference at Loughborough during September which was attended by senior staff from works departments. I remember Graham standing up holding which must have been the first prototype of a laptop which was like a small suitcase. He gave quite an inspiring talk about how computers were to be the future and we should all embrace this new technology. I was most impressed with Graham's speech. I think Graham reverted to discipline later to become a Governor. However it was some 15 years or so later before a computer appeared on my desk.
JEFF WOOLHOUSE, Ex-GOVERNOR V, FULL SUTTON
A contribution from your letter’s editor
The Strangeways Riot. My Minor Part in IT
Having read the comprehensive contributions from Graham Mumby-Croft and now Jeff Woolhouse who describes his "Even Smaller part in it" I feel obliged to make my own insignificant but nevertheless exciting, to me, contribution, not to the riot but more to the immediate consequences of it.
On the 1st April1990 I was gainfully employed in the Prison Service Information and Technology Group (PSITG) Installation Group and on that day I had made my way to HMP The Wolds where the team had just completed the installation of the Local Inmate Database System (LIDS). I was about to instruct the staff there in the mystical and wondrous workings of this new administrative tool replacing the previously wholly inadequate acetate and chinagraph system specifically designed in the 19th century for the warders and also the more sophisticated parchment and quill technique of recording applied by the treasury grades. Governors were either fully up to speed on all systems or generally mystified and reliant on uninformed advice.
As I arrived my paging device, which had lain dormant in my briefcase, alerted me to its presence, this sounds strange now in 2023 but in 1990 it was as mysterious a device as was LIDS, I responded, and it was my illustrious team Leader David Pike (G4). I should explain the dynamic of "The PSITG North Team" lt was made up with a G4 Team Leader, a GS, 2 PO's, 2 SO's, 2 HEO's, and 2 AO's, a team of 10 and all performing the entire range of installation functions within the team and all specially selected on their limited knowledge of computer systems and workings. Our objective was to install a working LIDS system into all the North Region Prisons and train both the uniform staff and administrators in its use.
I was one of the Senior Officers in the team and the paged telephone call was to inform me that HMP Manchester prisoners had gone on the rampage and that all staff had evacuated the prisoner areas. While the prisoners were still contained in and on the building all normal functions were ceased. We the "North Team" had only weeks before installed LIDS at Manchester, and it was now the source and electronic repository of all inmate information. The plan was for me to recreate a functional discipline office in a room at Manchester Regional Office. I was told that a lorry was on its way to Manchester with ten computer workstations, a base station (Central Processor) and all the wiring and peripheral equipment etc... necessary to allow me to build a replica discipline office in regional office. Before I could do that, I needed to gain entry into HMP Manchester and download the data from their base station and take it to regional office and then load it onto the system I had assembled there.
To that end I was to make my way from HMP The Wolds (Nr Hull) to HMP Manchester in all haste. To facilitate this, I was told that a police escort would meet me on the slip road to the M62 (just a mile from the prison) and they would escort me to the exit off the M62 where a police motorcycle escort would then take me the rest of the way. This is exactly what happened, and it was probably the most exciting eighty-mile drive of my life.
When I arrived at the prison, I needed to get to the base station computer which was located in the muniments room that was part of the outer wall of the prison. The access to it was from inside the prison grounds just a hundred yards from the main gate and directly below where the prisoners were occupying the roof space and in missile range. To get me to the muniments room they had to escort me there safely so the staff formed a Testudo (Latin for Tortoise) and I hid under it as they marched up to the door and let me in. All would have been well except for the valiant roof fighters had found some tins of powder paint and managed to get a direct hit on the shield directly above me and managed to spray my almost new sheepskin coat with powder blue paint.
Having been left alone I made myself comfortable in the muniments room and set the computer off downloading its system files and data which took about three hours to complete.
During the time spent in waiting for the computer to do its thing, I was in the muniments room and as a lowly Senior Officer from HMP Leeds I had no idea what a muniments room was or contained so the inquisitive ex-Security SO bit of my brain took over and I looked about and found a heap of old "Governors Journals". I looked for the oldest and read them with great interest. I remain proud of myself in that I didn't secrete one in my briefcase as a souvenir of my unusual access to such magnificent treasures. In any event my curiosity came to an end when a PO appeared with the Testudo and the question 'did I know anything about fax machines?' The assumption being that I was the only techie on site and might know something about fax machines. As it turned out I had recently set one up and that's just what was needed. So, I left my computer doing its work and was escorted to the main building and to what was the prison telephone switch room. The only space with a working telephone line had become the base of silver command (the redoubtable Brendan O'Friel) and there was a need for access to a fax machine. They had a machine but no one to set it up and I was delighted to be able to do so.
When I was returned to the muniments room the computer had completed its work. I was escorted back to the gate and off to the regional office where the lorry load of equipment had been unloaded into a good-sized room. I recall that I was met by Arnie Stapleton (Area Manager) who I knew, he had been my AGII Tutor at Wakefield Officer Training School sixteen years earlier. Apart from being well provided with mugs of tea the rest is a blur of sweat and swearing (all mine). I was charged with getting a replica of the Manchester discipline office ready for the discipline staff to get to work updating the database the next day, and that was achieved.
Before I close this tale of daring do, I would like to make separate mention of Brendan O'Friel who I hold in the highest regard. Before this catastrophic event the PSITG Team had installed the new LIDS system at Manchester towards the end of 1989,and I had been on that team. During the installation my wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer and taken into Leeds Hospital for major surgery. David Pike (The Boss)
sent me home to look after my two young children and I didn’t return to Manchester until January in the new year when our work had been completed with little left to do. On the morning of my return, I went to the mess for breakfast and Brendan was there having his own breakfast. When he saw me, he called me over and asked how my wife was. I had no idea that he knew who I was, why would he, but he did, and he knew she had been ill and cared enough to pause his breakfast to enquire after her. So, a belated but nonetheless sincere 'Thank you Brendan and keep well.'
ROGER OUTRAM
As ever please take time to write something that will be of interest to all your retired friends and colleagues and send them to me. Nice short chatty letters will be published in this section of the newsletter, longer with more specific content will be considered for a separate entry in the Newsletter.
Address to use is:
roger@rsoutram.co.uk or Roger Outram, 12 Grove Park, Magazine Lane, Wisbech, PE13 1LF
Please send Letters to: Roger Outram, 12 Grove Park, Magazine Lane, Wisbech, PE13 1LF
E-mail: roger@rsoutram.co.uk
Other contact: Telephone 01945 582624
As ever please take time to write something that will be of interest to all your retired friends and colleagues and send them to me. Nice short chatty letters will be published in this section of the newsletter longer with more specific content will be considered for a separate entry in the Newsletter.
