Express & Star

35,000 extra days behind bars given to Midlands prisoners

More than 35,000 extra days in custody were given to prisoners in the Midlands, new figures have revealed.

Published

Inmates were slapped with a total of 35,820 extra days, while there were 2,574 adjudications – costly hearings to determine if prisoners had broken rules – in 2015.

HMP Oakwood, a category C jail near Wolverhampton, gave out 5,404 extra days punishment to its 1,590 inmates – the eight highest in the country.

The prison also conducted 514 adjudication in 2015 – the second largest amount in England.

The hearings usually concern incidents of disobedience, disrespect or property offences and can result in a range of punishments including loss of canteen access, solitary confinement and extra days of imprisonment on top of an offenders' existing sentence.

Elsewhere in the Midlands, 5,098 extra days punishment were given to male juveniles at HMP Brinsford in Stafford. The prison also had 396 adjudication hearings.

HMP Birmingham, for Category B and C offenders, based at Winson Green, held 289 hearings, and gave out 4,138 extra days.

HMP Stafford gave out 570 extra days punishment and held 37 hearings.

HM Drake Hall Prison, near Eccleshall in Staffordshire, gave out 1,225 extra days and held 73 hearings.

HM Featherstone, a category C men's prison on the same site of Oakwood, gave out 3,608 extra days and held 228 hearings.

HM Prison Hewell in Worcestershire gave out 1,613 extra days and held 110 hearings. HM Stoke Heath, in north Staffordshire, handed out 5,216 extra days and held 424 hearings, while HM Prison Werrington, a male juvenile's prison also in Staffordshire, gave out 912 extra days and held 82 hearings.

HMP Dovegate Prison, a Category B men's prison near Uttoxeter, gave out 4,012 extra days and had 199 hearings. HM Prison Swinfen Hall, a category C men's prison and young offenders' institution near Lichfield, gave out 4,024 extra days and held 222 hearings.

The figures were released by the Howard League of Penal Reform which has claimed extending sentences creates a 'vicious cycle'.

Throughout the country more than one million days, equalling 2,890 years, were handed out in the period.

Chief executive Frances Crook, said: "Punishing misbehaviour by prisoners languishing in slum conditions is creating a vicious cycle of troubled prisons and troubling prisoners and these figures reveal that this cycle is now spinning faster than ever."

Managing director for G4S prisons, Jerry Petherick, said prisoners are told the rules regarding additional days 'very clearly' during their inductions.

He said decisions on additional time for prisoners who break prison rules are taken by independent district judges.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.