Nottingham

OFFICERS

The Officers said staff relations with each other were ‘excellent’ (‘a real family’), with new staff made very welcome. They rated in-cell phones, which ‘make a real difference’ and helped reduce violence, and said a dedicated, trained safer custody team, and screening on reception, had reduced ACCTs, with a similar approach to violence also helping there, too. They valued the ‘visible’ and ‘supportive’ Governor’s ‘open door’ policy, found CMs ‘very supportive’ – and felt having two CMs per wing, and CMs lining the route on movements helped staff feel ‘supported’ and safe. They liked the morning wing staff briefings, the No. 1’s widely read weekly blog (balancing ‘the good as well as the bad’ and giving praise where due), as well as the well-used staff mess.

MANAGERS

The managers praised the staff’s ‘enthusiasm’, ‘commitment’, ‘resilience’ and ‘can do’ attitude (which compared ‘very positively’ with other jails), and good staff-staff relationships. They agreed about phones, the safer custody team, CMs on wings, the Governor’s blog, and staff mess, and valued the ‘real focus’ on managers giving thanks to staff for jobs well done. They rated reception and peer-led induction (with new prisoners all met by peers, all cells cleaned and fully kitted out), ‘Signposters’ (like PID workers) on each wing, wing councils, bi-monthly Prisoner Council meetings, and the substance misuse team.

PRISONERS

The prisoners described ‘decent’ prisoner-staff relations, with violence reduced considerably (with a dedicated CSIP landing and zero tolerance ‘key’), in a clean and ‘safe’ (‘unless you look for trouble’) prison. They said Spice and Mamba were ‘much less of a problem’ now, with CMs on the wings making a real difference, and also highlighted Signposters, wing councils, and bi-monthly Prisoner Council meetings with senior managers. They rated phones in cells, two ‘very good’ gyms with ‘excellent’ staff, and the range of education opportunities.