SEX offenders are being “warehoused” in a jail where nothing is done to reduce the danger they pose to the public on release, according an inspection report published today.
Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, said that failure to tackle the problems of the 100 prisoners would put the public at greater risk when the men were released.
The report said: “Most sex offenders were in denial and nothing was being done to reduce the risk to the public after release.”
Ms Owers criticises the Prison Service for parking sex offenders at Lewes jail, East Sussex, instead of moving them to a jail with better resources. An inspection of the jail found that provision for sex offenders was extremely limited.
“These prisoners accounted for around 20 per cent of the (prison) population yet were essentially warehoused, without appropriate offending behaviour programmes or other interventions to reduce the risk that they would pose to the public on release,” the report said.
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Ms Owers recommends that the sex offenders are transferred to another jail where their behaviour can be tackled and public safety addressed.