“The Ulster Unionist Party’s Justice Spokesperson, Doug Beattie MC MLA, has welcomed two reports published today which confirm that there have been significant improvements at Hydebank Wood, Northern Ireland’s main prison for women and young offenders.

Doug Beattie said:

“Two months ago I visited Hydebank and spent some time in the company of the Governor, staff and students (prisoners) of Hydebank Wood College in an attempt to understand the challenges they face and the programmes and routine they have put in place.

“Following my visit I said that I was impressed by the attitude of the Governor and his staff in their attempts to rehabilitate the students and how receptive those students were, and I left extremely impressed with this prison regime.

“I am therefore not surprised that the Inspectors’ reports found that there has been a "major shift" in ethos at Hydebank from a fairly damning inspection report of three years ago.

“The Inspectors did report concerns about the accessibility of drugs at the facility and that some inmates would be better off in a secure mental health facility or hospital instead of a prison. Clearly these are very important issues that must be addressed.

“Nonetheless, it is quite clear that the Management and Staff have worked extremely hard to turn things around to the extent that they said relationships between staff and prisoners had "moved on considerably," and in some cases could be described as "outstanding".

“It is important for everyone to understand the prisoners - called students - in Hydebank Wood College, are there because they did something wrong and we should not lose sight of this.  However, their incarceration and loss of liberty is their punishment and the staff - who rightly remember first their role is to keep them incarcerated - are now focusing very much on the rehabilitation of prisoners.

“What I saw on my visit was multiple innovative ways to make the students' sentence in the college productive, rewarding and with an outcome that should see them entering society once their sentence is completed ready to add value to their communities. I was greatly impressed by the vision and enthusiasm of the Governor and staff who have created a routine and regime that promotes reward and rehabilitation yet maintains high levels of security. It is very welcome news indeed that Prison Inspectors have reached the same conclusions.

“This is all the more impressive given the high levels of understaffing our Prison Officers are having to deal with and the fact that their pay award for 2016 has not been agreed yet. It is extremely disappointing that for all their hard work, they are not valued properly by the Executive.”