Her Majesty's Prison Swaleside is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

When it opened it had four wings and held 650 prisoners, mainly lifers. Now it has doubled to eight wings and 1,112 men are locked up behind its giant perimeter walls.

Some of the 300 staff, like Sikh chaplain Kabul Singh Sodhi, have been at the Category B jail (the most serious is Category A) since the start.

In charge is Governor Mark Icke, a relative newcomer who took over the top job 18 months ago, although he has been a familiar face at Sheppey's three jails for the past four years.

He had a baptism of fire with a small riot. No one was hurt, no one was charged and none of the cells were damaged.

But when a second one exploded, rooms were destroyed and 18 inmates were charged.

Mr Icke, 43, said: "Riots are rare. People forget we are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year."

He has allowed us to see what life is like behind bars.

"We are part of the community. People should know what we do," he said.

It is strange walking around the complex with him. At times, he could be the headmaster of a school. He seems to know everyone. And everyone knows him.

In one corridor he is stopped by a prisoner worried about his diabetes medicine. Everyone seems very polite.

Mr Icke admitted: "It's not always like this. But I try to be fair and the men appreciate that. I set the values. My mantra is safety, decency and hope.

"People assume all prisons are dark, dingy places. Some of the wings were dirty when I took over but they are brighter now. Everything should be clean and tidy.

"And giving the men hope is really important. When they leave, I don't want to see them back."

Among them is 'N', a 33-year-old father-of-three and former painter and decorator serving 16 years for robbery.

He has five years to go and has been trusted with a full-time 'job' running the open-plan visits hall six days a week.

He admitted: "I didn't want to come here. It had a mad reputation. But it is 10 times better than the Category C prisons I have been in."

Men are put to work in various ways. Some make camouflage netting for the Ministry of Defence.

Following the riots, one of the first jobs Mr Icke did was to write a controversial open letter to inmates, or "residents" as he calls them, which was immediately leaked to the press.

He pulled no punches, warning them: "The amount of ‘prisoner on prisoner’ and ‘prisoner on staff’ violence is extremely upsetting and simply cannot continue."

In the year ending March 30, 2018, there were 220 attacks by prisoners on each other, compared with 161 the year before, and 133 attacks on staff, nearly twice the previous year’s total of 79. Since his letter, the number of attacks has decreased.

Mr Icke has a duty of care to both prisoners and officers.

There are also 200 contractors working on site and 200 support staff giving a total of 700. Many live on Sheppey, Sittingbourne and surrounding areas.

Along with the remand centre at HMP Elmley and the open prison at HMP Standford Hill, the Ministry of Justice is one of the Island's biggest employers.

After years of slashed budgets and redundancies, the prison had an injection of cash and is now fully staffed with a waiting list for officers, if not inmates.

But prison life is tough.

There is a relentless battle to stop tobacco, drugs and mobile phones being smuggled into cells.

And there was a spate of 'drones' flying over the walls dropping off contraband.

"For a while it seemed we were under attack," admitted Mr Icke. The prison is now an official 'no fly' zone.

Barry Page, who chaired the Eastchurch jail’s Independent Monitoring Board until last year, said drug-fuelled violence remained a major concern, blaming it on the increase use of legal highs such as 'spice' and said there was a "dramatic increase" in smuggled tobacco when the prison became smoke-free in September 2017.

But he praised Mr Icke and his staff for tackling the problem head-on by introducing a dedicated search team to confiscate illegal items.

He said the jail felt safer and added: “Staff have put a great deal of effort into improving the regime and appearance of the prison.”

There is a fine line between maintaining discipline and giving men, who may have lost everything, a vestige of self-respect.

Every prisoner has a telephone in his 6ft x 12ft cell and can call vetted numbers up to midnight. Mr Icke is also planning to introduce Velcro curtains for the cells' windows and lets inmates play loud music.

He said: "Some prisons don't allow it but as long as it doesn't upset other residents I don't have a problem with it."

But he added: "Not everyone agrees. Some say it is too liberal. But I think they are confusing it with being humane."

Goat-gate

Swaleside hit the headlines earlier this year when The Sun accused it of squandering thousands of pounds of NHS England money on two goats for prisoners to pet.

Some of the most seriously disturbed men are allowed to feed and care for pygmy goats Karen and Faye, named after the Governor's two secretaries, to teach responsibility for others.

Mr Icke said: “The goats were £300 from a sanctuary in Essex. They don’t cost a lot to run, either, as they eat the grass and bushes.”

He added: “The goats form part of a broader horticultural project which includes two ducks, nine chickens and a beehive.

“The first chickens came from a battery farm and were in a very dishevelled state and close to death. The newer ones were hatched and raised here by the prisoners.”

The farms and gardens project, originally created by Head of Residents Aron Fill, 37, encourages men in the Offender Personality Disorder Unit to maintain the area, care for the animals and grow produce which is cooked and eaten on the wing in communal meals.

Mr Fill has been a prison officer for 13 years, starting at Elmley. He is one of two staff on the prison's apprenticeship scheme and is taking a Level 5 qualification with the Chartered Management Institute.

The Governor

Mark Icke was 23 and had been working in various jobs when he spotted an advert to become a prison officer and instantly made up his mind it was the career for him.

His first job was at Rochester. He recalled: "I can still remember my first day as if it was yesterday. I was nervous and the inmates teased me because I was so young. But I immediately felt at home. I passionately believe many of the men we look after can be helped."

His staff help, too.

Richard Davies, 44, received a top honour at the Black Awards in London this year after being nominated by Lord (Michael) Hastings of Scarisbrick for his work with black prisoners. Lord Hastings described him as a “truly exceptional man.”

Mr Icke said: “I was absolutely delighted Richard’s work was recognised."

As a former vice-president of the Prison Governors Association, Mr Icke has never shirked from speaking out against government policy when he felt he needed to and has called for jail sentences of less than a year to be banned.

He said: "We cannot go on thinking we can imprison our way to a safer society. Not only is it poor value for money, it also fails to recognise that there are better and more cost-effective ways to protect the public and reduce reoffending."

Art for prison's sake

Four works of art from Swaleside prisoners are on show at Margate's Turner Contemporary Gallery as part of an exhibition of inmates' work.

We Made This opened on March 1 and runs until May 19.

The 70 exhibits were selected from 700 entries across Kent at Sussex to the annual Koestler Awards for arts in criminal justice and include paintings, drawings, sculptures, poems and writings. Entries also came from Sheppey's Elmley and Standford Hill prisons. Admission is free.

Swaleside’s governor Mark Icke said: "It is amazing what some of our residents can create in our art classes."

He will be staging an "open weekend" at Christmas so the public can view and buy some of the prisoners' works.

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