Prison life: control and restraint techniques

Oggy Williams, National Instructor, Litigation Manager at Hatfield Woodhouse and Lifetime Achievement Award winner at Prison Officer of the Year 2008, explains: “C&R didn't come about until the early eighties and the first manual wasn't published until 1989. There was a small group of staff who were responsible for putting the first C&R techniques together and getting them recognised, 80% of which are still in use today. Prior to that we had MUFTI training (Minimum Use of Force Towards Inmates) which was how we prepared for indiscipline involving large numbers of prisoners. It served a purpose and was good for its time, but it was nothing like we see now.”

The NTRG Centre at Hatfield Woodhouse opened in 1988 with six permanent members of staff. “We first started with an empty hangar and there were none of the purpose-built buildings that we have now,” says Oggy. “We had 8,000 tyres brought in which we stacked and painted doors on to create make-believe cells. It sounds basic now but at the time it was a vital training resource. We later had mock wings made out of scaffolding which provided us with a stairwell to train on, but we still had no walls. Now the training facilities are superb. We have two dojos (gymnasiums) for contact training, purpose-built cells and wings with landings, and scaffolding for negotiating at height training.”

A professional service
The introduction of C&R meant staff could prepare for all situations they might face in a hostile situation. It saw the beginning of structured intervention plans where people were assigned tasks and their roles clearly defined. Oggy explains: “The way people are trained in C&R means they should never face anything that they haven't already dealt with in a training situation. It's not just a case of turning up and trying to handle whatever appears in front of you – interventions are professional operations. You must stay focused and use the skills you've got.”

“Many decades ago situations were resolved through force of numbers – the more staff on hand to help the more likely we were to resolve a situation without anyone getting harmed. With clearly identified roles, staff can now control situations quickly and efficiently with minimum numbers. This takes away some of the prisoners' ‘bragging rights' about how many people were needed to control them. The person or their size no longer matters; our techniques work and they work on everyone.

“And although the skills and techniques have developed over the years, much of what we do originates from that first training manual and here we are 25 years later still using it. It just goes to show what a good job the pioneers of C&R did.”

An evolving service
In addition to the basic and advanced C&R courses, the NTRG Centres now run series of other courses, including method of entry and negotiating at height. Procedures in these areas have progressed rapidly in the last five years in response to the increasing frequency of incidents, and the national instructors have now written their third working at height manual.

The National Instructors have also trained prison staff from the Caribbean in C&R and they regularly train with the police, with whom they share a close relationship. The same C&R techniques are also used in Australia and New Zealand. Oggy says: “Our relationship with the police has blossomed. They join us on our courses and we train with them, liaising about new techniques and training methods. Every time we change the training manual we consult many independent bodies to ensure our techniques are as safe and effective as possible.”

“Crime is always changing and evolving. And if it's changing on the outside, of course, it will change on the inside. We always need to keep abreast of the challenges coming our way and we work hard to do that.”