The 35 years during which Ian Dunbar worked in the Prison Service were years of extraordinary pressures and challenges. In 1959 most secure prisons were old and overcrowded. The constantly increasing population caused living conditions for many prisoners and the working conditions for staff to be very poor. Serious escapes caused growing political and media scrutiny. Prisoner disturbances became more frequent and destructive. Staff disputes and industrial action absorbed and diverted management.
During these turbulent years, Dunbar worked his way to the top of the service, enduring some of the worst of the pressures, yet still contributing greatly by improving life for prisoners and staff. Cheerful, enthusiastic and energetic, throughout his career he was keenly committed to the rehabilitation of prisoners. His remarkable empathy with others gained the trust of many prisoners and staff, enabling him to make improvements despite the inertia of penal institutions. Although a born optimist, Dunbar was practical and firm when confronted with unacceptable behaviour. Even then, always seeking the best in people, he constantly explored ways of moving an individual or an establishment forward.
Colleagues found him very supportive, especially in difficult times. His ability to encourage others generated loyalty and affection from those who worked with him. He created effective teams to tackle issues including giving opportunities to women at a time when that was far from usual practice. Good at delegation, he encouraged staff to use their initiative. Above all, he constantly reminded staff and colleagues of the need to take proper account of prisoners’ interests in any decision.
Perhaps his most telling contribution was A Sense of Direction published in 1985. In it, he proposed clarifying the service’s aims and tasks, encouraging positive active regimes and introducing the proper monitoring of performance. He developed the concept of dynamic security — that the close involvement of staff with prisoners in a high security regime reduced the risks of escape. Activity and security were to be viewed as interdependent rather than opposing functions.
Much of what Dunbar advocated was implemented over the following years. The Prisons Board adopted a new statement of Aims and Tasks. Positive regimes became part of the “Fresh Start” initiative of 1987 which dramatically changed the way staff worked. Regime monitoring and improved management information systems were developed.
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Ian Malcolm Dunbar was born in Hackney, East London. Brought up in Woodford, he attended Buckhurst Hill Grammar School. After National Service in the Medical Corps, he studied politics and economics at Keele University, where he became president of the union. He won a scholarship to Reed College in Portland, Oregon. While in the United States he became interested in the civil rights movement, meeting Martin Luther King and Paul Robeson; experiences that left a lasting impression on him. On his return to England he reconsidered his plans to become a congregational minister, believing he should practise rather than preach.
In 1959 he joined the Prison Service as an assistant governor. After training at the Prison Service Staff College at Wakefield, Yorkshire, he was posted to Leyhill open prison in Gloucestershire. In 1965 he returned to the staff college to train new assistant governors and was soon promoted to assistant governor class one. While at Wakefield he was married to Sally Hendrickson.
Further promotion to governor class three came in 1970. As deputy governor of the new high-security prison at Long Lartin, Worcestershire, Dunbar worked with Bill Perrie, an experienced and charismatic governor, to develop regimes for long-term high-security prisoners — a vital part of the service’s strategy to cope with the growing number of prisoners serving very long sentences.
In 1972 he was given his first command, of the borstal at Usk in Monmouthshire. Early experience of HQ working was usual for a person with Dunbar’s potential, so he was promoted to P4 Division at HQ in 1975 with responsibility for young offenders. In 1978 he was again governing, at Feltham Borstal — now a prison and young offender institution — in Middlesex.
Promotion to governor class one followed in 1979 as governor of Wakefield prison, one of the top security “dispersal” prisons. But in 1981 John McCarthy, governor of Wormwood Scrubs in Shepherds Bush, West London, wrote a letter to The Times highly critical of prison conditions, describing himself as the manager of a “penal dustbin”. After a furore, McCarthy left. Dunbar moved to Wormwood Scrubs and began a programme of recovery and improvement. In 1984 he was given a six-month secondment to the Prisons Inspectorate to prepare A Sense of Direction.
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In 1985 he was promoted to regional director of the South West Region responsible for some 25 penal establishments. Regional directors were also members of the Prisons Board, the body responsible under the Home Secretary for the running of the service. As regional director in 1987 he had to implement Fresh Start in all his establishments.
In 1989 Dunbar led an inquiry into a major riot at Risley Remand Centre. His report explored the underlying causes of the disturbance and made radical recommendations. A year later, at the time of the 1990 prison disturbances which started at Strangeways in Manchester, he had to control several riots in establishments in the South West Region.
A major reorganisation in 1990 resulted in him being promoted further to director of Inmate Administration at HQ where he served until retirement in 1994. Among many initiatives, he helped to bring about lasting improvements to the management of prisoners at risk of attempting suicide. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1993.
After retirement he was appointed a Sentence Review Commissioner, reviewing prisoner releases in Northern Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement. He also joined the Homicide Review Advisory Group. In 1998 he co-wrote — with a former Prisons Board colleague Anthony Langdon — Tough Justice: Sentencing and Penal Policies in the Nineties. This book reflected his unease with the Government’s approach to the rising prison population.
He also found time to pursue his interest in photography, painting, beekeeping and in local environment issues in Somerset.
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He is survived by his wife Sally and three children.
Ian Dunbar, CB, prison governor and director, was born on January 6, 1934. He died on May 21, 2010, aged 76