Public Policy: Using Market-Based Approaches - Department for ...

Section 9 – Competitive Tendering of Prisons
hours during which prisoners are unlocked and average weekly hours of
purposeful activity. However, the study also observes that assault rates are
higher at privately managed prisons than at comparable public prisons.
This evidence suggests there may be tension between different objectives. In
general, PFI prisons outperform publicly managed prisons on decency criteria
but the reverse is true for safety/security criteria. 96 The NAO report observes that
it appears difficult for any prison, whether public or private, to perform well in
both of these areas, suggesting that there may be some degree of trade-off
between the two. The observed differences in performance may arise from the
fact that public prison decency targets are often set at lower levels than for
private prisons, 97 perhaps enabling public prisons to make this trade-off where
private prisons could not without breaching their contract. They may also reflect
differences in staff culture across the types of provider. Private prisons often hire
workers with no previous experience in prison management, and therefore have
staff who are more likely to accept changing attitudes towards prisoners than
their more experienced public sector counterparts.
Not all evaluations of private prisons have been so positive. For example, the
Prison Reform Trust has criticised private prisons for cutting labour costs to the
detriment of service quality. It finds that these labour cost savings have been
achieved in two main ways. First by reducing the number of employees: the
private sector hires on average 17 per cent fewer staff per prisoner. 98 Second, by
offering worse terms and conditions to prison officers than those enjoyed by
public sector employees. The average basic salary for prison officers in state run
prisons in England and Wales in April 2003 was £23,071, compared to £16,077 in
privately managed prisons. 99 The average contracted working week is two hours
longer and annual leave two to ten days less per annum. By including
differentials in overtime pay and pension entitlements, some estimates have
arrived at the conclusion that staff in private prisons may be up to 70 per cent
worse off than public sector prison officers. 100
The Prison Reform Trust has suggested that inferior terms and conditions have
led to the hiring of young and inexperienced staff with little prior knowledge of
the prison system, as well as observed higher turnover rates (25 per cent as
opposed to 2.5 per cent). 101 It attributes problems maintaining required staff
levels to these higher turnover rates, and suggests that the use of inexperienced
96 Decency criteria relate to the quality of life in prison, and include measures such as hours of purposeful activity
and respect shown to prisoners. Safety/security criteria on the other hand include measures to limit the number
of escapes and assaults.
97 For example, the NAO observes that the average purposeful activity target for local prisons operating in the
public sector is 20.6 hours per prisoner per week, where the equivalent figure for PFI and privately-managed local
prisons is 29.5 hours.
98 Sachdev(2003).
99 Hansard(23 March 2004).
100 Sachdev (2003).
101 DLA MCG Consulting (2003).
101