The first group of new prison officers in Northern Ireland graduated today in a sign of “fundamental” change within the organisation.
Twenty custody officers completed an eight-week training programme and will next week begin gaining experience in jails across the region.
Justice Minister David Ford has called for a break from the past when the terrorist threat and poor industrial relations between prison warders and management soured the atmosphere and created inefficient work practices.
He said: “Today heralds a significant milestone in our ongoing prisons reform programme with the passing-out of the first group of new custody officers.
“Successive reports had made the case for fundamental changes to the workings our Prison Service and today’s ceremony is another sign of the progress we are making in delivering those changes.”
An agreement struck with the Prison Officers’ Association paved the way for the recruitment of hundreds of staff for new roles on lower salaries.
They will replace 532 prison officers leaving as part of a voluntary redundancy scheme intended to generate millions of pounds in long-term savings. Some retired officers earned around £38,000 a year.
The starting salary for new custody officers will be £18,000, rising to £23,000 and increasing with successful completion of training.
Mr Ford wished the new graduates at the prison service college in Millisle well.
“Refreshing the workforce is a central part of the reform agenda and these custody officers will play their part in maintaining a safe, decent and secure environment within our prisons and rehabilitating prisoners,” he said.
Up to 99% of those eligible expressed an interest in redundancy when it was offered, Mr Ford has said. Two thirds of applicants had more than 35 years’ service, with the most experienced receiving lump sums worth more than £55,000.
An independent review team, headed by Dame Anne Owers, made 40 recommendations a year ago on how the service could operate more efficiently.
Those included finding an alternative to intrusive full body searches of prisoners (trials using sophisticated body scanning technology are under way); and improving healthcare and assessment of prisoners’ health needs and introducing new working patterns for staff after old shifts left inmates locked up for longer than necessary.
Prison Officers’ Association chairman Finlay Spratt criticised some of the reforms earlier this year.
“It was an English solution to an Irish problem,” he told a Stormont committee.
“They are all gone now with your money, and we are left with the problem, but we will get over that. The men and women are totally demoralised, and we now have a workforce that does not want to be there.”
A Criminal Justice Inspectorate report in 2010 revealed there were almost 1,900 uniformed officers to supervise less than 1,500 inmates. The annual cost of £95,000 per prisoner was much higher than in Great Britain, where greater economies of scale are possible.
Another 40 new recruits are undergoing training and a further 100 will commence training in the coming weeks.