Owers: 'Disabled prisoners overlooked'

Katharine Quarmby

Anne Owers, chief inspector of prisons, does not mince her words. Musing on how to describe the “big picture” of how disabled prisoners are treated by Her Majesty’s creaking and antiquated system, she says, crisply, that the service is “patchy and inconsistent”.

While she does not accept that the prison service fails all disabled prisoners, she says that “there is no doubt that there are disabled prisoners who are failed by the system”, although she adds that “some get good individual support”.

Anne Owers has spent much of her last seven years as chief inspector of prisons challenging the failings of the prison service, both at a national level and in individual prisons. She has dealt with the problems experienced by disabled prisoners and has written thematic reports on the support needs of older prisoners and prisoners with mental health problems as well as taking an active interest in prisoners with learning difficulties. She has documented horrifying cases – such as wheelchair- users who cannot get their wheelchairs into their cells, prisoners with physical impairments being placed on top bunks – and prisoners with incontinence problems not being allowed out of their cells to visit the toilet.

Although she says that prisons are becoming aware of their responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act, she says that the overall picture remains “very stark”. The system, she says, is designed for “fit, able-bodied young men” and as a result disabled prisoners are “overlooked”.

But some of the problems that disabled prisoners face should be dealt with outside prison, she says.

“This is a much bigger question than what you do in prisons. What I feel about prisoners with mental health problems and learning difficulties is that too many are only identified when they come into contact with the criminal justice system. Too many people only get treatment for mental illness when they arrive in the system. We need better provision outside prison.”

She is particularly forthright on the (large) number of women with mental health problems in prison. “I have no doubt that I see acutely mentally-ill women during my inspections and that prison is making their problems worse.”

The challenges faced by prisoners with learning difficulties, raised by the Prison Reform Trust, also need to move up the agenda, she says. “This has been an invisible problem, and many develop coping mechanisms” which can obscure their needs, she says. She wants to see more adjustments, such as offender behaviour programmes tailored to prisoners with learning difficulties.

But she concludes on a more optimistic note. “Disability is getting more attention and it is good that it has become a visible issue. It was rarely talked about when I started seven years ago – but I think that it is an issue that needs a lot of investment from outside, from social care agencies and healthcare services. Disabled prisoners are citizens too.”