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Scrutineers have expressed concerns that the prison's new regime of daily wing 'lockdowns' - and the underlying staffing issues behind them - are set to continue "for the foreseeable future".
According to recently-appointed Acting Home Affairs Director General Kate Briden, the matter is likely to be resolved within a matter of "months", rather than weeks.
As revealed by Express earlier this month, one wing of the prison has been ‘locked down’ each day since mid-September, and inmates are only able to leave their cells for around one hour in total to wash and to exercise on their wing's selected day due to a shortage of prison officers and concerns over the resulting overtime bill.
Grilled over the issueat yesterday's Home Affairs Scrutiny meeting, Home Affairs Minister Deputy Gregory Guida confirmed that the regime had since been varied for a "very, very small handful of prisoners", who were able to access the gym and workshop.
He explained that the lack of officers was due to a mixture of vacancies and "simple things like maternity and paternity leave - I think we've got four officers on maternity leave."
Echoing the comments of Prison Governor on last week's Bailiwick Podcast, Ms Briden added that the level of overtime used to cover these absences had become "unsustainable" and "had caused a big financial pressure, but also more importantly actually it causes a huge pressure on the the staff from a welfare and number of hours worked point of view." Neither provided a cost of the overtime bill.
Pictured: Acting Director General for Justice and Home Affairs, Kate Briden, said it could be "months" before normal service is resumed at the prison.
Ms Briden went on to state that there are currently technically 10 vacancies, though this is split between four roles which need to be replaced immediately, and another six which could be used to create a pool of officers for the service. She noted that further vacancies are also expected to emerge when some current prison officers are promoted.
"There are two vacancies in the prison officer-grade residential wings, and there are eight vacancies in operations officers, and there will about to be another two vacancies when two prison officer grades are internally promoted up to the higher prison officer grade," she said.
Despite these shortages, Ms Briden emphasised: "Any commitment prisoners have on the day that their wing is on a restricted regime will either be met or moved to a different day, so that any rehabilitation or education programmes aren't affected."
Pictured: The Scrutiny Panel voiced their concerns around the regime following the hearing.
On when the prison could expect to see the restricted regime removed, Ms Briden said: "I would expect it to be a matter of another few months at the most, but again we can double check that - it does have a link with the prison Target Operating Model."
The new Target Operating Model - a new blueprint for staff structure and hierarchy - was a key point of discussion in the hearing, with Ms Briden saying that "it should be designed and ready to be consulted on by end of this year, and then implemented early next year."
When Chair of the panel, Deputy Rob Ward, asked for more specific dates, Ms Briden responded that "we simply aren't there yet."
The Government has tasked the prison with saving £315,000 by 1 January 2022. When asked by panel member Senator Tracey Vallois how this will be achieved without the operating model in place, Ms Briden admitted "it will have to be managed in other ways."
She continued: "Some of the vacancy factor will help that, because whilst there's recruitment going on at the moment, Susie [the prison Governor] will... balance the expenditure on staff vacancies and other costs in order to make sure that efficiency is delivered from the beginning of the year in a tactical way, and then that will kick in the more strategic long term way once the target operating model is introduced."
Following the meeting, the scrutiny panel voiced concern both over the restricted regime and over what they saw as "no clear plan" for the £315,000 leaving the budget.
Deputy Ward said: "We recognise that all Government departments are being asked to find efficiencies in their budget.
"However, we remain concerned about the knock-on effect on staff morale, and on service delivery.
"With some prisoners likely to be confined to their cells one night a week for the foreseeable future, and States of Jersey Police Officers taking on responsibilities from support staff, the Government must strike the right balance between efficiencies and a robust service."
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