Prisons seek volunteers to assess life behind bars

Independent monitors have access to prisoners and facilities

Volunteers are being sought at four prisons in the West Midlands, to oversee how the establishments are run.

Independent monitoring boards (IMB) are recruiting at Featherstone and Oakwood outside Wolverhampton, Stoke Heath in Shropshire and Dovegate in Staffordshire.

The boards said volunteers should be "enthusiastic and open-minded" and work well as part of a team.

Members need to be available for two to three visits a month along with attending board meetings, they added.

Russell, an existing IMB member who has volunteered at establishments in Shropshire for two years, said the role allowed him to walk around the prison, talking to anyone he wanted.

"[We're] just making sure, basically, that the prisoners are being treated in a fair and reasonable way," he said.

Monitoring boards were first set up under the Prisons Act 1952, and now observe conditions in immigration facilities as well as jails.

There are approximately 1,200 volunteers on the boards, which stress they are independent of prison managers.

Applications for the current vacancies close on 29 April.

IMB national chair, Elisabeth Davies, said: "We are an organisation of over a thousand unpaid public appointees, who are committed to monitoring places of detention and the outcomes for those held there.

"Your visits throughout the year will afford you the opportunity to report on the treatment of detained individuals and whether prisoners are being given the support they need to turn their lives around."