STAFF at the award-winning rehabilitation unit at Dartmoor Prison this week said they were frustrated their success was being threatened by prison overcrowding. The unit has been instrumental in reversing the fortunes of the prison, which was threatened with privatisation six years ago if its performance did not improve. Since then it has won a number of awards, including the most improved prison award in 2005. The rehabilitation unit has approximately 40 inmates. The prison is Category C, but those in the unit have to be downgraded to Category D before they can be let out on day release to gain job experience. However, two weeks ago, ten downgraded inmates on the scheme were transferred to an open prison, effectively ending their programme. Don Wood, South West spokesman for the Prison Officers' Association, said morale on the unit took 'a massive knock' as they had felt they were doing good. 'There is not a lot of satisfaction in the prison service but there can be in this area, so everyone felt very frustrated. But they are paid to be prison officers, so will continue to do their job,' he said. He said if downgraded trusted prisoners on the scheme were transferred away to open prisons and they had to keep finding prisoners from Category C, the unit would not be able to function properly. 'The unit could have ended up being self-funded, but if I was a local employer and couldn't guarantee a position, I wouldn't hold the space,' he said. Many employees are learning skills on farms, but once transferred away they would no longer be able to continue this. 'We have had no bad feedback from employers. Surely we've got to help people rehabilitate?' Mr Wood said. 'Our biggest fear is that we'll be back to being a warehouse. We need to have meaning to life,' he added. The reason for the transfer was a lack of Category C prison spaces, but Mr Wood said that at Dartmoor alone there was a wing closed due to sanitation problems that would house 100. 'At weekends they are keeping prisoners at Charles Cross. It has got to be cheaper to refurbish the wing,' he said. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said by sending more low-risk short sentence prisoners to open prisons, they could free up places in closed prisons where pressure on places was greatest. 'These measures have been carefully considered and exclude any short sentence prisoner who has ever been convicted of a sexual offence, is currently serving a sentence for a violent offence, or who is facing deportation.' The spokesperson said the rehabilitation unit's future was not under threat.
