Prisoner Transportation 'Needs Improvment'

The man in charge of a review of NI custody transportation has called for a review of the way several different private firms are involved in ferrying prisoners to and from court appearances.

He also highlighted the cost of sick pay to the official service and said this could be better handled by using private contractors for even more of the inter-prison and court movements.

Chief Inspector Dr Michael Maguire recommended that a market test of the service delivered by the Prisoner Escorting and Court Custody Service (PECCS) and police be undertaken.

He said that contracting the work out to third party providers would lessen the impact on the public purse of the PECCS sick pay bill and that it would also free more police officers for other duties.

The report looked at how prisoners were transported by the Prison Service's PECCS, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and two private sector providers.

The inspection team reviewed the arrangements to assess the approach and delivery of the individual agencies, the interfaces between these agencies and the overall cost effectiveness of the service.

The assessment framework considered the treatment of prisoners at court and during transport, the provision for prisoners with additional needs, court custody facilities, and overall health and safety issues with around 18,000 prisoners escorted to and from courts, prisons, hospitals, police custody and juvenile detention centres every year.

The NI Justice Minister David Ford has welcomed the findings of the first in-depth report on PECCS.

He said that the report concluded that prisoners are treated in a safe and humane manner but identified a number of areas where the treatment of prisoners could be improved.

But, he said it noted that the cost of sick absence within the service was around £300,000 per year and that Dr Maguire believed this is "a saving that could potentially be realised if this risk was transferred via a fixed price contract to a third party supplier".

He also indicated that savings could also be achieved - and police officers freed to undertake front line policing duties - if the PSNI contracted out all its responsibility for providing prisoner escort and court custody arrangements for about 7,000 prisoners each year.

The report also identified inconsistency between the four prisoner escort and court custody service providers in relation to some practices such as the handcuffing of prisoners.

(BMcC/KMcA)