Report of the Inquiry into the circumstances of the Death of Bernard ...

Safety
23.13 I have described in paragraphs 14.10 to 14.37 above:
the new national ACCT system for safeguarding prisoners against suicide and
self-harm
including, in particular, at Manchester
the Friends and Family Helpline;
the procedure followed where individuals or agencies from outside the prison
express concern about a prisoner, and
questionnaires to prisoners after an ACCT plan is closed.
23.14 Governor Vince contrasted the priority now given to safety in prisons with the
resources that would have been allocated to it in 1998. The suicide awareness leader in
1998 was a senior officer. There is now a senior management post of Head of Safer
Custody and Decency, and a safer prisons co-ordinator, with a deputy to ensure
continuity, and a safer custody administrative officer. In November 2008 the prison
appointed a Violence Reduction Coordinator. Use of force is reviewed monthly by the
senior management team.
23.15 Violence reduction surveys are held twice yearly with confidential questionnaires
to all prisoners. The results are analysed to inform the Violence Reduction Strategy of
potential areas of distress for individuals. A monthly analysis of anti-social
behaviour/violence/assaults is conducted to identify problem areas and provide effective
remedies. In addition, the Violence Reduction Strategy draws on managing violence,
anti-bullying and cell sharing risk assessment processes and the lessons of independent
inquiries, investigations and inspection reports.
The group officer scheme
23.16 Successive HMCIP reports urged the prison to set up an effective personal
officer scheme, so that each prisoner has a main and familiar point of contact among
prison staff. Manchester has 20,000 to 25,000 movements of prisoners through
reception every year. It is obviously more difficult to run an effective personal officer
scheme in a local prison like Manchester than in a prison with a settled population of
sentenced prisoners. Schemes have to accommodate the constantly changing
population of prisoners as well as taking account of staff shift patterns, which may
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