Ford Prison's first woman governor calls it a day

Sharon Williams assumed the top role on Monday (May 18), replacing Fiona Radford, whose five-and-a-half years at the prison ended today (Friday, May 15).

She left after succeeding in one of her main goals of drastically cutting the number of absconders.

The total in the last full year, to March 31, was 53 or barely a third of the 142 in the first complete year when she arrived at the prison.

The drastic reduction has also been achieved in spite of the prison's population increasing from 525 to an almost-full 557.

Ms Radford said: "There has been a steady decline in the number of absconders, which has gone down year after year since I have been here. It's what I like to see and what the public wants to see as well. The fact the prison population is now much larger than when I arrived means it is even more of an achievement."

Ms Radford was heavily criticised during her initial months at the prison for the rate at which prisoners were walking out of its large site on both sides of Ford Road.

But she said she had enjoyed her time there in spite of the occasional negative headline the prison received.

"I have no regrets about being at the prison at all," she said. "I have enjoyed being at an open prison for the first time and helping prisoners to resettle in the community. I have always believed that the more you reduce the likelihood they will reoffend, the safer the public is," she stated.

This goal was also achieved by the greater number of educational and vocational courses now on offer in the prison to provide prisoners with a greater chance of success in the jobs market.

"I am proud as well of the accommodation service we have to get prisoners into settled accommodation," Ms Radford continued. "That reduces reoffending rather than having them bed-hopping or living in unsuitable accommodation."

The prison, which opened at a former Fleet Air Arm station in 1960, has about 180 staff with an equal number of workers from partners, such as the West Sussex NHS Primary Care Trust and the Probation Service working there as well.

Ms Radford, 44, was the first female governor of the prison '“ and the 11th in all '“ when she arrived in November 2003 after 18 years in the prison service.

She has left to join the new director of offender management's office in Woking in a top managerial role.

It is a short-term role to oversee the merger of the prison service and the probation service in the south east to protect the public by ensuring criminals serve their sentences and reduce reoffending by helping offenders to reform their lives.

Inmates allowed to sneak out, report finds

Lax security at Ford Open Prison allowed inmates to sneak out at night to buy alcohol and drugs, a report found.

Prisoners found it 'relatively easy' to leave the prison, inspectors discovered. Only six staff were on duty at night to watch more than 500 mostly white-collar criminals on the 100-acre site.

Some convicts arranged for drink and other banned items to be left just outside the perimeter for collection, the report found.

Last year staff discovered a stash of 30 bottles of vodka. The report said such finds were 'not uncommon'. The week before the inspection in October, two 'violently-drunk' prisoners vandalised a segregation block. Another incident saw a prisoner attacked by five others wearing balaclavas.

Staff asked for more CCTV cameras, but were refused because of cost, the report said.

"The main security problems were the smuggling of alcohol, drugs and mobile phones in to the prison," it stated.

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