Prison Privatisation and the Remand Population: Principle Versus Pragmatism?

This article draws on our recently published evaluation of HMP Wolds, the first contracted‐out prison in the United Kingdom. The authors argue that prison privatisation in England and Wales was a direct consequence of the increase in the remand population in the 1980s and the deteriorating conditions of their custody; that the response of Group 4 in designing a regime for Wolds was directly influenced by their awareness of the remand status of the prisoners they were to manage; that some of the problems that emerged in the first year of Wolds stemmed directly from the particular circumstances of remand prisoners; and that Wolds'response to these problems resulted in regime modifications relying on more traditional approaches, compromising Wolds'original ethos and resulting in convergence with the public‐sector prisons. In addition, the authors argue that these changes reflected a response to the social status shared by all prisoners rather than the legal status which is unique to remand prisoners and this, arguably, has contributed towards a deterioration in the standards that Wolds initially offered to remand prisoners.