“Fundamental Flaws”: Problems at G4S’s Private Prison Over the Years
Parc Prison at Bridgend, managed by G4S, has been marked by ugly incidents since its founding in 1997, including:
- G4S accidentally freed a prisoner awaiting trial for multiple robberies and attempted robberies in July 2006. The mistake went unnoticed until the prisoner failed to show up for his court date.
- G4S' only prison in the UK prison system was declared the worst-performing privately run prison in Wales and England in 2004, and 132nd out of all the prisons – six from the bottom. A government report cited continuing inability to meet certain contractual requirements, inadequate health care facilities, and seven outstanding investigations into deaths in the prison. It was based on data from the twelve months ending in February 2004.
- The Chair of the Board of Visitors was quoted as being “horrified at [the health care unit’s] condition” at Parc, saying it was “absolutely filthy,” in 2003. Similarly, the Commission for Racial Equality reported that year that despite being a new facility, the prison’s “physical condition was poor” and “upkeep was not good.”
- In 2002, two prison warders sent a hoax note to a prisoner telling him his entire family had died in a fire. Shortly afterwards, a senior prison officer was suspended by G4S for punching an inmate who was handcuffed in his cell.
- The final report of a Standards and Security Audit in August 1999 stated that “we have found a number of unfinished strategy documents, incomplete or absent monitoring systems, poor or missing audit trails and, in some areas, a lack of clear written instructions….”
- G4S' poor prison design leads to serious difficulties in monitoring racist acts, bullying, and other misbehavior. The Deputy Director commented in 1999 that “It seemed to beggar belief that either the private sector contractor or we, in analysing the bid, had thought it was sensible to run several different workshops within a single building with no adequate partitions between the different workshops.” The Commission on Racial Equality commented that, “it is a matter of considerable concern that a brand new prison should have had such a fundamental flaw in its design.”