It's interesting that two consortia, involving charities, are bidding to run prisons in England. The two groups are:- Turning Point (social care), Rainer Crime Concern (young offenders), and Serco Group (bidding for one jail)
- Nacro, Group 4 Securicor, an unnamed drugs charity, and an unnamed construction company (bidding for two jails - Maghull and Belmarsh West)
Nacro's head, Paul Cavadino, admits that they are "odd bedfellows" with Securicor, but that:
"If we're both involved in working together on the design, planning and regime of a new prison, it increases the chances that regime will be one which helps to reduce re-offending by resettling prisoners effectively."I'm confused how Nacro will retain credibility from a few points of view. One, it puts them in bed with private prison operators.Two, how can it criticise Titan jails, whilst simultaneously running part of the prison system?
The news of these joint bids comes only days after Cavadino said that "resources should be used to improve the prison system, not expand it" -- if Nacro believes that, why not bid to run existing prisons, rather than new ones that expand the prison estate?
1 comment:
I guess it is the abattoir and vegetarians argument - if you are going to kill animals, at least have people that care about them working there.
I'd agree though, it makes criticism difficult and what happens if there are problems at their own jails - presumably the other partners are in the deals to make money.
That said, it would have been nice if someone else had bid for the Census 2011 contract than Lockheed Martin. That really makes my blood boil.
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