(UK) Prison governor locks out probation staff in G4S joint bid to privatise jails
The governor of three prisons in South Yorkshire has ordered all probation staff off the premises after discovering that the local probation trust had formed an alliance with the private security company, G4S, to take over the running of his jails.
Bob Mullen, who is in charge of Lindholme, Moorlands and Hatfield prisons, told South Yorkshire probation trust last Friday that he was excluding all probation staff to protect the commercial confidentiality of the rival public sector bid to run the cluster of jails near Doncaster. "The probation staff in the public sector prisons were effectively marched off the premises and had their identity badges and keys taken away and were effectively locked out of their place of work," reports an internal probation service email seen by the Guardian.
The row is an embarrassment for the largest single prison privatisation programme, under which the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, has ordered that the management of nine prisons be put out to competition.
Mullen's decision means that all probation work inside the three prisons has been suspended, jeopardising rehabilitation work with the 2,000 inmates including the preparation of parole dossiers.
full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/01/prison-governor-locks-out-probation-staff
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