'Warehouse' prisons falling short of Kenneth Clarke's rehabilitation pledge Chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick says management of offenders within jails is 'too poor in too many places'. Tens of thousands of prisoners in England and Wales are being "warehoused" without any meaningful work being done to challenge their criminal behaviour, according to a joint report by the chief inspectors of prisons and probation. The watchdogs say that two years after the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, promised a "rehabilitation revolution," there are still not enough places on recognised programmes to tackle criminal "thoughts and attitude" and many that are available are not of high enough quality. The chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick, said it was "particularly scary" and a significant failure that a third of imprisoned sex offenders could not get on sex offender treatment courses, and that many who did failed to complete them. Hardwick said: "What's happening on the ground now in terms of offender management is too poor in too many places and needs to be galvanised. On the face of it, it is just really disturbing. Sex offenders are being released without adequate interventions to reduce the risk they will reoffend. However you juggle the priorities, that ought to be near the top. One recent prison inspection report on Maidstone jail, in Kent, which is a regional hub for the treatment of convicted sex offenders and holds 480, revealed that there were only 36 places available on one course, with a waiting list of 92 prisoners at the time of the inspection. The joint inspection report was based on examining the records of 220 prisoners in 11 jails across England and Wales that hold long-term prisoners, and interviews with 178 "offender managers" - prison staff charged with drawing up a sentence plan in the case of each inmate. The inspectors found many prisons took care of prisoners' resettlement needs such as education, employment and health, but failed to underpin that with work to sustain changes in their behaviour to cut their reoffending rates on release. "A period of incarceration offers an opportunity to tackle a prisoner's entrenched behaviour and attitudes, and moreover to observe and capture on a day-to-day basis whether the necessary changes are taking place prior to release," said Liz Calderbank, chief inspector of probation. Failure to capitalise on that opportunity is a waste of an expensive resource. The report showed that in 148 of 220 cases, the prisoners had been assessed as needing to go on an accredited offender management programme, but there was no plan for this in a quarter of the cases. Reviews of sentence plans were undertaken in fewer than half the cases. Too often, sentence plans were based on the interventions available in the prison, rather than what was required in the individual prisoner's case. Out of the 148 sample cases, 82 prisoners required a transfer to take specific courses but only 34 had been moved and a further 19 were awaiting a transfer. No move was planned for the remaining 29. Hardwick said: "They are not being followed up, not being reviewed, nobody's really on the case.Of course it is important that people are held securely, of course going to prison is a punishment, of course it's important that they are in safe and decent conditions. But if that is all you do, then you are just warehousing people, as Ken Clarke has said. It may be a decent warehouse, but it is a warehouse nonetheless. Michael Spurr, chief executive officer for the national offender management service, said: "Despite a challenging operating environment reoffending has been reduced by five percentage points since 2000. This reflects much better case management both in prison and the community. We are targeting resources to reduce risk to the public. More than 1,000 sex offenders completed programmes in custody last year and we will continue to prioritise work on the basis of risk. Transforming offender management is a significant challenge. We have made real progress but accept there is more to be done to break the cycle of reoffending. We are committed to improving rehabilitation in prisons and will use this report to help accelerate change. Justice minister Crispin Blunt said: "I asked the inspectorate to look at this area as it is essential that we have the effective offender management and rehabilitation those in custody. I therefore welcome this report which provides clear recommendation for further improvement.