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ISSUE 2186 Sunday 20 May 2001

Prison officers are told to call inmates Mister

By Danielle Demetriou

PRISON officers are to be encouraged to abandon the practice of calling inmates by their surnames and instead allow prisoners to choose how they wish to be addressed.

Martin Narey, the director general of the Prison Service, will this week urge staff to address inmates as Miss, Ms, Madam or Mister in an attempt to create a more polite atmosphere in prisons. Prisoners could be addressed by their first names if they chose.

The proposals, to be outlined by Mr Narey in a speech at the prison officers' union conference, will apply to all prisoners. If adopted, the most notorious prisoners will find themselves addressed in the most polite of terms - for example, Mr Brady, the Moors murderer, and Mr Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.

A Prison Service spokesman said: "Times are changing and the director general does not see why prisoners should not be addressed by their first name or as Mister, Miss or Ms if that is what they prefer. A level of respect is expected on both sides."

According to Tom Robson, a national executive committee member of the Prison Officers' Association, the proposal is likely to receive a hostile reception from the Prison Service's 43,000 staff. He said: "This is something that prison officers will not be glad to hear about.

"They feel very strongly that by calling inmates by their surnames, they remain in control, and in a position of authority. It has been tried out on some establishments already and it was received very badly."

The announcement is part of a broad range of measures that Mr Narey hopes will spark wide-ranging reforms in the prison system.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2001