Walter MacGowan

Walter MacGowan worked in the prison service from 1970 to 1992, before joining Group 4. He became a key executive of Geo Group UK, a detention centre company.

1992 Strangeways to Group 4

In July, MacGowan was briefly governor of Strangeways prison, which was earmarked for privatisation. He caused controversy when he resigned after just six weeks. In August, he joined private security giant Group 4 as director of prisons, and was "involved in projects related to the privatisation of prisons and prisoner escort services."

1993 Wolds prison

In April, MacGowan was made director of Group 4's Wolds remand prison.

In August, an inspection of Wolds by Judge Stephen Tumim found that “drug use was unacceptably high” and it criticised "weaknesses in the contract between the Home Office and Group 4 and the lack of financial checks which made it 'impossible" to determine whether the jail offered value for money'.” It said there had been a “high incidence of assault”.

"His report found that in the 12 months to March 31 there had been 29 recorded assaults by inmates on staff, 21 attacks on other inmates, two incidents of food refusal, three rooftop incidents and nine concerted acts of indiscipline. Drugs had been found on 46 occasions and some prisoners said drugs, including heroin and cocaine, were easier to obtain at The Wolds than at other prisons. The report estimated that it cost £312 a week to keep a prisoner, excluding the cost of gas, electricity and water." The report also found that inmates were paid £1 per day for work inside the jail.

“Walter MacGowan, director of the Wolds, says that it would make little difference if there were more staff in each unit: two officers could be overpowered as easily as one. 'If you introduce more than one member of staff, you don't necessarily introduce supervision. What you do find is that staff start talking to each other rather than to the prisoners.' Like the inmates, he was adamant that there were no more drugs in the Wolds than in other jails, pointing out the difficulties of eliminating them altogether. For instance, drugs had recently been found in a baby's nappy. However, with better checks on visitors there were fewer drugs coming into the prison than when Judge Stephen Tumim, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, visited it in May, he said.”

In 1995, a journalist interviewed MacGowan at Wolds. The Financial Times reported that at Wolds only seven out of 190 staff were former prison service staff. MacGowan claimed that "the ability to mould custody officers from scratch is a net gain." The article said "For private operators, staff flexibility and commitment is critical to the cost savings enabling them to undercut the Prison Service." MacGowan claimed that he fulfilled the contract "including allowing prisoners out of cells for the unusually long period of 13 or 14 hours a day - with about four-fifths of the staff employed by equivalent Prison Service establishments."

1996 Buckley Hall prison

1996, April. Director of operations//Group 4///HMP Buckley Hall

A furious Betty Boothroyd carpeted the Home Secretary after the boss of a private firm was "smuggled" into the Commons to help out his hapless ministers.

       The Speaker told Michael Howard to make sure the flagrant breach of protocol never happens again.
       
       Group 4 chief Walter MacGowan sat in a specially-reserved box of seats next to the Government front bench.
       
       Only the Speaker can give permission for people to sit there. Mr MacGowan, director of operations at Buckley Hall prison in Rochdale, which is run by Group 4, was let in for an emergency debate.
       
       But his presence sparked protests from MP Liz Lynne, who had called the debate to discuss the privately-run jail's poor record.

       Liberal Democrat Ms Lynne said: "You can't have private companies briefing ministers on the floor of the House. "6

2001 Altcourse prison

2001, October. Director//Group 4///HMP Altcourse

“ One way of looking at the issue is to narrow it down to a single sector. The prisons service, for example, has had a private element since management of the Wolds prison, in Yorkshire, was handed over to Group 4 in 1992.

       Two further prisons have since been placed under private management and eight have been built under design, construct, manage and finance (DCMF) contracts under which companies deliver and manage new prisons.
       
       Much of the criticism of private prisons has focused on contract terms drawn up when companies demanded a substantial risk premium. There has also been criticism of refinancing deals.
       
       Yet little attention has been paid to the operational perform-ance of private prisons, or to their impact on the prison service as a whole.
       
       Altcourse, a "core local" prison in Fazakerley, Liverpool, was built by Group 4 in 1997 to house up to 615 inmates sentenced in an area stretching from Manchester to North Wales.
       
       The site is dominated by flowers; tended by the prisoners, they grow almost everywhere. Strict security is combined with an appearance more akin to a technical college than a prison. All staff wear name badges and prisoners choose to be referred to by their first names or as "Mr X". The prison's modern design and facilities allow an extensive system of privileges for good behaviour.
       
       Altcourse provides more "purposeful" activity - positively occupied time outside cells - than any other local prison. But it is not a hotbed of bleeding heart liberals. Walter MacGowan, the prison's director, says there is no-one in his jail who does not deserve to be there. But prisoners do seem to appreciate the regime. " They treat you a lot better here than in the state prisons," says one armed robber.
       
       Sir David Ramsbotham, the recently retired chief inspector of prisons, said in 1999 that Altcourse was the best local prison he had inspected. For the first time, said Sir David, he left a prison feeling optimistic.
       
       But does this demonstrate that private sector provision is inherently better than the public sector model?
       
       Holme House prison in Stockton-on-Tees is also a local prison, handling just under 1,000 inmates. Built in 1992, to a 1980s design, it is one of 126 prisons in England and Wales still within the state system.
       
       There are few flowers at Holme House. Prisoners are not asked how they would like to be addressed, space and facilities are limited and prisoners spend less time on purposeful activity.
       
       But Holme House has the lowest running costs of any prison and the lowest incidence of assaults. It makes strenuous efforts to encourage education and runs a number of ground-breaking schemes, including a highly praised wing for reformed drug addict prisoners and the prison service's first scheme giving toddlers educational time with their fathers.
       
       Richard Crouch, the governor, admits that there are problems. " We are very conscious that in many ways (prisons such as Altcourse are) an example that we need to follow," he says.
       
       But the two prison directors show a surprising degree of agreement about the differences in performance between the prisons. Both say that much of Altcourse's success flows from its highly efficient, state-of-the-art design and its largely inexperienced workforce.
       
       "We deliberately avoided people with experience of prison work because we didn't want to bring the problems of the state system into our prison," says Mr MacGowan. Like other private prisons, Altcourse employs fewer prison officers per prisoner than state prisons and pays them less - explaining, in part, the opposition to such prisons from prison unions. Holme House, by contrast, has a relatively old-fashioned infrastructure and its workforce has proved less open to innovation. Name badges, for example, are worn only by managers.
       
       "A lot of established prisons have staff who were selected at a time when it was considered quite desirable to shout at prisoners. The majority of staff already treat prisoners and each other with courtesy but there are some who don't," says Mr Crouch.
       
       Martin Narey, the prison service director, is one of many managers who opposed privatisation. He says: "I was one of those who thought there might be something immoral in getting profit out of prisons. I don't believe that now.
       
       "Prisons like Altcourse are patently very good indeed. It costs a lot of money and the contract at Altcourse is constructed in a way that I would not (agree to) now - but nevertheless it and the other private prisons are running very successfully." One key contribution of the private sector, has been the ability to operate in new ways, which has set operational benchmarks for the rest of the service. " It has allowed me to introduce a competitive element into the prison service which we otherwise could not have had," says Mr Narey.
       
       The results, he says, have been surprising. The private sector achieved a "massive step forward" in the flexible use of staff but the companies have been caught - perhaps even overtaken - by the state sector.
       
       "They have become, in running prisons, a bit complacent. They have not been as imaginative as this service has had to become in terms of utilising staff - and, of course, they have to take a profit out of this.
       
       "It may be that one or two of them are looking backwards to the days of very much higher profit margins," says Mr Narey.
       
       Two prisons run by the private sector have recently been transferred back to the state sector after competitions between private and in-house teams. This suggests that the private sector's cost advantages in running existing prisons are being whittled away. Contract terms for managing existing prisons have also been tightened, reducing the potential for easy savings.
       
       Perhaps as a result, the private sector appears less interested in taking over existing prisons. There were no bidders for a contract to run Brixton prison earlier this year and Group 4 managers say that they are unlikely to be interested in such contracts in future.
       
       Nevertheless, says Mr Narey, the private sector retains substantial advantages in designing, financing and building new prisons, suggesting that there will be a continuing market for the private sector to cope with expansion of the system and the replacement of older prisons. Sotto voce, prison service officials are talking of possible joint bids in future, under which new prisons would be designed, financed and built by private companies, with management provided by the state sector.
       
       Private companies, says Mr Narey, remain enthusiastic about new prison contracts and there has been substantial competition for the next two. The winners will be disclosed shortly.
       
       In the longer term, private bidders say that a mixed system will work only if the government removes uncertainty about its acceptability - in part by persuading its own supporters that the use of private capital makes sense.
       
       "The private sector can't be seen just as a sort of rescue mission coming in every time there is a problem in the system," says Amanda McIntyre, head of the modernising government group at the Confederation of British Industry. " This has to be more than a hobby or a sort of sideline for Group 4 and the other companies or they won't continue to innovate."7

       “LIVERPOOL's second prison,HMP Altcourse opened in Fazakerley five years ago.
       
       The first privately built jail in Britain,it was funded under the Government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and is run by Group 4 Securitas.
       
       Speaking to the Daily Post last night,Altcourse's director Walter MacGowan said private sector companies can improve the running of British jails.
       
       He said: ``It is like having a blank sheet. You can make your prison design fit the managerial structures and operational options that you have.
       
       ``We operate to a contract. It is clearly specified what is expected and we are subjected to quite a few performance measures to make sure we deliver.
       
       Mr MacGowan believes not every private jail has to be built from scratch and that a private company could run HMP Liverpool at its present site.
       
       Prison Reform Trust figures show Altcourse as the seventh most over- crowded prison in the country - it is housing 392 more prisoners than it was designed for.
       
       Mr MacGowan said: ``Yes, we are an over-crowded prison at Altcourse but the prisoners do not suffer because of it. They are still unlocked for 13 hours a day and receive the full list of activities that they are entitled to.
       
       He said he thought that Liverpool Prison's governor John Smith would keep the jail in state hands,although he hinted Group 4 may bid if the Government did decide to privatise.”8

2002, June. Director//Group 4///HMP Altcourse (Cat A) 2003, June.

NAO: “Out of the 12 private prisons in the UK, Altcourse was ranked joint top with Parc in South Wales.”9