WYMOTT prison chiefs have sprung to the defence of their jail in after inspectors slammed them in a report released yesterday (Wednesday, July 21).

Prison governor Ray Doughty believes that a report by Her Majesty's Chief Inspectorate does not give enough credit to staff who run education and training schemes for prisoners.

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, visited the Leyland jail in February and highlighted a number of concerns in his report.

He described the regime for life prisoners as 'impoverished' and stated that accommodation for so-called 'vulnerable prisoners' - mainly sex offenders - was poorly designed in comparison to the modern wings housing Wymott's Category 'C' inmates.

Sir David also expressed concerns that nearly half of Wymott's sex offenders refused to admit their crime, and could be denying places to offenders who may be willing to undergo treatment.

But Ray Doughty said that prison staff were already working towards meeting the inspector's recommendations, and argued that the report had failed to take into account progress made since a major riot at Wymott in 1993.

He said: "The report gives credit for good practice but does not do justice to the tremendous amount of effort that staff put into their work with prisoners across the spectrum."

Ian Lockwood, Prison Service area manager for the North West, said: "I think most of the stuff in this report is par for the course. It doesn't say the prison needs to start up new programmes - we need to develop those already in place."

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