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Original poster

What the hell was he doing in an open prison?!

34 replies

Spudlet · 14/02/2022 16:27

Sex offender Paul Robson on the run from HMP North Sea Camp

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-60372887

I won’t post details of his crime but please be aware that they’re on the above link if you click. They were awful, and committed when on licence, only 3 weeks after being released from a prior prison sentence. He was jailed for life after this, ‘with the sentencing judge describing him as a "menace to females".’ And now he’s escaped, the police are describing him as a danger to women and young children, and warning people not to approach him… so why was he in a minimum security prison in the first place? Angry

OP posts:
MyLifeNow20 · 14/02/2022 22:59

Didnt know he was in an open priosn..... pretty scary

MyLifeNow20 · 14/02/2022 23:03

aparently he didnt escape, he waled out and was only months away from release.
I know a prison officer who said hes been in open conditons for a while so risk is greatly reduced

Whattochoosenow · 14/02/2022 23:09

Interesting that probation services recommended he be transferred to an open prison, but were very quick to distance themselves from it because they didn’t actually do the signing off on it. I wonder why on earth it was even recommended?

prh47bridge · 15/02/2022 00:22

Copying my reply to a similar thread in Legal Matters...

I doubt anyone here can answer for this specific prisoner, but there is no bar to prisoners who have committed serious offences being moved to open prison. A prisoner can be moved to open prison if the parole board believes they are not a danger to the public or other inmates and that they are unlikely to abscond. Clearly the parole board will get some cases wrong - some prisoners will be transferred to open prison who are flight risks and/or dangerous, whilst others who could be safely transferred are not.

In this case, clearly the parole board was wrong about whether he was a flight risk. Also, the police clearly disagree with the parole board about whether he is a danger to the public. Given that the parole board got the flight risk wrong, it is reasonable to think that they may also have been wrong about the danger to the public, but it doesn't necessarily follow.

Rhannion · 15/02/2022 00:25

It proves yet again that women & children don’t matter to the authorities.

nocoolnamesleft · 15/02/2022 00:26

He's only dangerous to women and children. Not anyone that matters.

purpleme12 · 15/02/2022 00:43

This has honestly made me really worried
I wish I'd never heard of it

RoseRedRoseBlue · 15/02/2022 01:05

@Whattochoosenow I think you are confusing Probation with the Parole Board.

jytdtysrht · 15/02/2022 01:37

How is an open prison a prison if you can spend your days away from it at work/education? Sounds more like a hotel.

RoseRedRoseBlue · 15/02/2022 10:13

It’s nothing like a hotel, I can assure you

Rhannion · 15/02/2022 19:30

@RoseRedRoseBlue

It’s nothing like a hotel, I can assure you
TBH that’s not reassuring at all. Dangerous people should never be in any open prison, in fact sometimes the key should be throw away!
RoseRedRoseBlue · 16/02/2022 01:06

Well, that’s not where we are at, and the vast majority of offenders do leave prison at some stage. The entire point of open prison is to prepare them for this.

mummykel16 · 16/02/2022 01:48

It doesn't work

prh47bridge · 16/02/2022 07:49

@mummykel16

It doesn't work
On the whole it does. But sometimes the parole board get it wrong. Of course, errors happen in both directions. Just as some prisoners are judged suitable for open prison when they aren't, some prisoners who are suitable for open prison will be judged unsuitable. Of course, we don't hear about the latter category.
mummykel16 · 16/02/2022 14:55

Open prisons are a contradiction pointless and a failure, either you should be in prison or you shouldn't.

FAQs · 16/02/2022 15:02

This isn’t uncommon from NSC, they even used to have a public footpath through the grounds, not sure if it’s still there.

thelincolnite.co.uk/2022/02/over-100-prisoners-abscond-from-hmp-north-sea-camp-in-last-decade/

mummykel16 · 16/02/2022 15:19

KirkhamConfused

CitrusPocket · 16/02/2022 15:23

Yes I was slightly alarmed by this too. The article I read mentioned that Colin Pitchfork had been in an open prison before release as well (though obviously he didn’t escape from it).

IsItTooHotInHere · 16/02/2022 15:27

Bloody hell. He'd sexually assaulted a woman in her own home, by getting in through the cat flap

North Sea Camp prison - my (late) uncle was in there, years ago, for a couple of months, for fraud. When we went to visit, a lot of the prisoners were sitting on top of grassy mounds, waiting to see who came in through the gates. He said at the time that it was extremely easy to get drugs - he didn't bother, he wasn't into that. Things did seem rather relaxed there

RoseRedRoseBlue · 16/02/2022 19:11

@mummykel16

Open prisons are a contradiction pointless and a failure, either you should be in prison or you shouldn't.
What about all those that successfully complete a stay in open conditions- ie, the vast majority?
mummykel16 · 16/02/2022 21:48

What of them?

prh47bridge · 17/02/2022 00:14

@mummykel16

What of them?
They are the point of open prisons. They work in terms of reducing reoffending by gradually reintroducing inmates to society rather than going straight from being locked in a cell for 23 hours a day to being free.
mummykel16 · 17/02/2022 01:39

Yet it doesn't work.

And some prisoners are far to high risk.

GlitterSquid · 17/02/2022 02:04

@mummykel16 He wasn't in Kirkham was he?

Uncurtailed · 17/02/2022 03:04

You'd be surprised at the number of prisoners, who have committed some very serious offences (murder, rape, drugs supply) who are housed in open prisons. Normally towards the end of their sentences, but they can come and go as the restrictions allow.