COUNCIL ANGER AT PRIVATE PRISON BOSS SNUB

COUNCIL ANGER AT PRIVATE PRISON BOSS SNUB

Privatisation giants Sodexo snub ‘fact finding mission’ in community claiming contract is with ConDems raising fears of ‘accountability deficit’. 

A Overview and Scrutiny committee meeting set up to probe a series of incidents at HMP Acklington has been told by French privatisation giants Sodexo Head of Operations in the UK that he won’t give evidence to the committee because ‘Sodexo’s contract is with the Ministry of Justice’ not the local community.

The response has provoked anger as a new ‘scandal’ has hit the prison with a seizure of class a drugs and local Councillor and parliamentary hopeful Scott Dickinson has vowed to seek answers from the company and the Ministry of Justice Secretary of State Chris Grayling about the failure of the company to provide reassurance for local communities.

Since the prison was privatised, staff numbers have been reduced by 39% from over 440 to 270. The prison has also seen a riot where prisoners took over a wing and the latest seizure has sparked fears that the prison may be ‘powder keg waiting to explode’. The fears have been raised by NAPO who are now faced with the same company running probation services who have branded the prison as ‘chaotic’. 

Northumberland County Council launched a scrutiny investigation to explore the impact of the privatisation of Acklington on the local community and had invited Sodexo along to explain how they saw their role in the wider community. The snub by Sodexo Head of Operations in the UK Mike Conway has angered council leaders who say the decision ‘does not bode well for accountability for the controversial decision by the coalition government to allow Sodexo to run the North East Probation Service.

Councillor Dickinson who represents Druridge Bay ward said

‘This is a shocking snub for the local community which needs to be reassured about the changes at HMP Acklington and for Sodexo to say their only answerable to Chris Grayling in Whitehall shows how little this ConDem government and its rush to privatise really value local communities. I can promise Mr Conway that this council will get to the bottom of the reasons why he won’t come clean about the company plans for HMP Acklington and I will be taking this up with the Ministry of Justice. This is totally unacceptable and the silence coming from local Conservative and Lib Dem politicians on the privatisation of North Northumberland really is deafening. We’ve seen the prison shipped out to the private sector with the loss of hundreds of local jobs, we’ve seen the privatisation of search and rescue at RAF Boulmer, the rushed sale of the East Coast mainline franchise and we’re now told that Sodexo has been handed the keys to Northumberland and Tyne and Wear probation services. We’re now left to pick up the pieces with hundreds of jobs lost and a real lack of accountability”.