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Press releasesREF: PR/02/07 DATE: 9th January 2007 To: ALL POLITICAL PRESS RELEASE POA Condemn Prison Service Prisoner Categorisation PolicyThe POA have today openly criticised the prison service policy of categorisation and allocation of prisoners as inadequate and accused the prison service of being more interested with prisoner numbers than public safety. The POA have exposed the scam of continually changing the allocation criteria to shoe horn prisoners into open conditions to crisis manage an ever increasing population. The prison service, have disposed of their Prison Service Order 0900 outlining specifically the criteria for categorisation and allocation in favour of a more easily changed IT based process. This has enabled at least 4 changes to the inmate categorisation form which has allowed for more and more unsuitable prisoners to be allocated open conditions. The POA have serious concerns that they have raised with the Director General of the prison service who appeared to be unaware of the changes to the allocation procedure. The allocation procedure now allows for some minor drug and violent offences to be categorised into open conditions. Staff at establishments are very concerned that Category B prisoners of 4 years ago are now Category C prisoners or even worse Category D prisoners this has and continues to put the public at risk. Colin Moses the National Chairman of the POA said: - “The prison service has to sit up and take its responsibilities to the public more seriously. It is unacceptable to endanger the public in order to force prisoners into spaces. Crisis management must cease in our criminal justice system for the system to operate effectively”.
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