The worst PFI prison is worse than comparable public prisons across a range of indicators

2.13  Those prisons that scored more than four red indicators were classified as red overall and were performing poorly. This group includes one PFI prison, Ashfield. It is the only prison within our study which received an unacceptable security rating from the Standards Audit Unit and it also scored red on other indicators relating to safety and security, the level of assaults and the degree to which staff felt safe. All the qualitative assessments of conditions at Ashfield, such as those of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Youth Justice Board and the Area Manager, were extremely critical.

2.14  The other five prisons in this category are all public prisons and include Manchester which operates a SLA with the Prison Service following a successful in-house bid against the private sector. Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons highlighted a recent reduction in staffing levels in her 2002 report18 which may have affected responses to our survey. It is not possible to say whether this is a reaction to the recent changes which may reduce over time or may be a more long-term problem.

2.15  The traffic light analysis is not a definitive ranking of prisons. First, it includes only 21 of the 137 prisons in England and Wales. Second, it does not weight any of the indicators and it does not take into account any of the special circumstances which may affect individual prisons. Third, the data is time sensitive and a number of prisons have been able to make significant progress in a relatively short period of time, usually following a change of Governor. However, it does summarise a wide range of data and, as such, provides a useful summary of how the prisons in our study performed. It also, together with other parts of our study, highlights particular areas where there is a difference in the performance of PFI and public prisons.

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18  HMCIP, Full announced inspection HMP Manchester, 11-21 November 2001.