1.12 The Prison Service had concerns over the levels of concerted indiscipline when the prison first opened in 1998. In particular, there were incidents in April and August 1998 when prisoners refused to return to their cells. The Prison Service deducted £83,000 from the annual payment at the end of its first performance year (0.6 per cent of the total annual payment). A financial deduction of £11,865 accrued in the second year was waived in return for a commitment from the contractor to provide Offending Behaviour Programmes (OBPs)11.
1.13 There was also an escape in June 2001 while a prisoner was being escorted outside the prison. This resulted in a fine of £28,000. This consisted of the £25,000 fine stipulated by the contract and £3,000 to reflect inflation. During 2002, Lowdham Grange accrued 301 performance penalty points against a baseline threshold of 620 points (Figure 9). These were for assaults, positive drug tests and failure of security procedures.
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11 Courses which seek to change a prisoner's erratic or aggressive thinking behaviour and therefore reduce their risk of re-offending.