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

privileges over and above the facilities that prisons were required to permit under
Standing Order 4. They include, for example, extra visits, extra time out of cell and
permission to spend extra private cash. In some prisons, particular wings were allocated
to the different levels of regime; in others, prisoners from all levels occupy mixed wings.
Governors were required to draw up local schemes within the national framework. The
IEP scheme was introduced in July 1995 in Instruction to Governors (IG) 74/1995.
7.12 The current guidance on the IEP Scheme is Prison Service Order (PSO) 4000
Incentives and Earned Privileges, Earned Community Visits and Compacts. Prisoners on
standard and enhanced, but not basic, levels are eligible for access to in-cell television
where it is available. However, all prisoners considered to be at risk from selfharm/suicide
(or disadvantaged by disability or in other ways) can be considered for incell
television irrespective of privilege level on a case by case basis.
H wing
7.13 Governor McColm told the inquiry that regime levels at Manchester in 1998 were
based on location. There were separate wings for prisoners on the enhanced, standard
and basic regimes. A report of an inspection at Manchester prison in 1995, published by
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMCIP) in 1996, expressed concerns that the
basic unit (then on I wing) was seen by prisoners as overbearing and inflexible (HMCIP
1996, paragraphs 5.22-5.31, especially 5.27). Governor McColm was appointed to
change this. He told the inquiry there were concerns about prisoners being locked up, of
having little access to any regime or any association or exercise and, for example, the
way they were inducted onto the unit was “virtually having the rules shouted at them”.
7.14 Governor McColm said that he felt the wing had been set up on the wrong basis
and without proper management. It was verging on being a segregation unit but without
the safeguards that applied there. He said it was not difficult to turn the wing around. It
was not typical of the prevailing culture at Manchester where he found that the vast
majority of officers were decent and caring.
7.15 The location for basic regime prisoners was moved from I wing to H wing. In a
report published in January 1998, of an unannounced inspection in October 1997,
HMCIP says their concerns had been addressed and managers and staff were found to
be taking a more sensitive and helpful approach. HMCIP found that prisoners knew why
they had been placed on the basic level and were encouraged to progress. Most had a
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