Prisoners out of cells more after staff recruitment drive

La Moye Prison is the only one in Jersey

A report into Jersey's prison has praised an increase in the amount of time inmates spend out of their cells.

The Independent Prison Monitoring Board (IPMB) said it had previously been concerned about the drop in "purposeful activity" for prisoners.

Part of the reason was a shortage of volunteers and staff to help run the activities at La Moye Prison.

Due to a staff recruitment drive, the report found an increase in the time prisoners spend out of their cells.

It had risen from five-and-a-half hours each day in 2022 to almost seven hours last year.

The board said the figure remained below the target of 10 hours set by prison management.

Alternative remedies

The report said prison management had adopted an "over-recruiting" policy - adding 25 officers to its staff.

The IPMB also answered questions from prisoners and looked at complaints they raised, and found many of these were about access to health care.

Due to staff changes in 2022, the prison decided to review its policies for delivering health care and temporarily brought in staff from the hospital to cover.

The interim team made some changes to bring practice in line with the community offering and to save money.

Changes included the way GP appointments were scheduled, the way medicine was prescribed and trying more alternative remedies to reduce reliance on medication.

The report also found people who have neuro-diverse conditions can struggle with some aspects of the prison regime.

The board said La Moye Prison staff try to help by adjusting the regime where they can but recognise it is a challenge as they are not mental health professionals.

The report highlighted that two of the staff members who joined the prison team temporarily are trained mental health nurses.

The prison is now under the responsibility of the adult mental health team in government.