PROFILE: The governor in charge of 'Oxfordshire's most challenging housing estate'

Ian Blakeman is in charge of keeping things in check at the roughly 1,100-inmate prison, near Bicester, as well as leading a team of more than 300 staff.

The prison has faced a challenging few years as it continues its battle to curb drugs and violence inside the prison’s 1.2km perimeters.

It takes an army of prison officers and support staff, working challenging shifts and roles, to keep the prison ticking over everyday and Mr Blakeman – known to many as the ‘old man’ – is leading the way.

HMP Bullingdon is Oxfordshire's only ‘local and resettlement prison’, taking on category B and C male inmates.

Prisoners are categorised on risk of escape, harm to the public and threat to the control of a prison. At HMP Bullingdon category B prisoners are those usually straight from court in Oxford, and category C prisoners are those given the chance to develop skills for resettling back into the community.

A tour of the north Oxfordshire prison shows it works like a well-oiled machine, not without its difficulties, but this clockwork-style process can largely be down to the 25 plus years experience from Mr Blakeman.

The governor had his sights set on becoming a prison officer from a young age. He said: “It stemmed from being about 14 years old at school and we had to do one of those sort of 200-questions surveys which give you a result of what you should do.

“One option was something like a vet, another a social worker, and then a prison officer. My interest was sparked from there.”

Mr Blakeman had a brief moment when his focus shifted away from prison officer duty, as he considered a life in politics with visions of working for NATO.

But his teenage interest soon brought him back to prisons when he joined the prison auxiliary in 1993 at HMP Springhill, in Buckinghamshire.

He then went on to work for five years as a prison officer in Aylesbury, working up through the ranks before moving on to become a senior officer, then head of security at HMP The Mount in Hertfordshire.

Other prisons Mr Blakeman has worked at also include HMP Bedford, and HMP Wayland where he worked his way up to deputy governor of the prison.

The governor said it isn’t unusual in the prison service for officers to often move between prisons, and said it has helped him in working under scores of different people learning valuable skills across many prisons.

He added that he doesn’t mind the long commutes from his family home, in an area he would prefer to keep private for safety reasons, and has even managed to learn a new language when travelling.

The first stop on the tour of HMP Bullingdon was the high security at the front desk, every visitor is scanned and their possession put in a locker - no mobile phones are allowed in the prison with visitors.

Hallways are partitioned by a number of doorways, which open and close individually in sequence, one after the other. The high security obviously continues throughout the prison with every area or corridor sealed off by a locked gate or door.

Prisoners are taken to a ‘welcome desk’ area where they are checked in and out of the prison. This process includes a host of paper work and checks from officers to ensure prisoners are aware of what is ahead of them in when coming in to prison, as well as safety checks for mental wellbeing and assigning any necessary support if needed.

The initial prison officer introduced by Mr Blakeman spoke of his previous evening shift in which he had spotted signs of mental health issues with one new prison upon his entry. He had ordered extra patrols of that inmate as a result, and he was found to be writing a suicide note in his cell by officers.

The early detection of potential mental health issues from the officer meant the inmates life was essentially saved that night, a scenario Mr Blakeman said is not unusual for officers support of inmates.

The next person Mr Blakeman introduced was an inmate, who had been assigned as a listener for new prisoners or for those struggling on the inside.

He explained his duties, while being put to work cleaning the ‘welcome area’, in being a listening ear to inmates who are maybe struggling and having been in prison for many years was able to provide help and support.

As the tour continued, the main thing that was clear was the well-earned respect for Mr Blakeman from inmates and staff alike. Without fail, Mr Blakeman was able to name every staff member who passed by and was clearly a well-known face among prisoners who often stopped him for a chat.

Mr Blakeman said it was this ‘comradery’, and the vast support among colleagues which he enjoyed at work, adding: “The role of governor does bring out the paternal instinct, and I have been referred to as the ‘old man’, even though I was 40 when I was at Bedford.”

In speaking about what was the toughest part of being governor, he said: “It is the toughest job I have ever done. The deaths are the hardest part.

“Since I have been governor, 13 people have killed themselves, and two of those have really affected me. The first one I felt so responsible.”

He added: “You do become somewhat desensitised [in this job], and some times you actually feel grateful when you do feel something.”

Mr Blakeman and his army of officers have long battled problems with drugs, namely Spice, and violence at HMP Bullingdon. The problem is wide-spread across the prison service and often down to rising numbers of prisoners and a shortage of prison officers.

Various reports previously spoke about safety concerns at HMP Bullingdon for both staff and prisoners as violence figures were on the up.

Mr Blakeman said: “We had a massive spike in violence when there was a huge staff shortage and as a result we have all faced an enormous challenge.”

But the governor spoke of the recent recruitment efforts going in to bringing about more staff at the prison, and last year welcomed more than 80 new recruits which he is in the process of training up.

He said he is keen ‘to see the good times in’ as things take a positive turn at HMP Bullingdon, adding: “It is never going to be a finishing school but it feels like it is getting better.”

HMP Bullingdon hosts a number of activities for prisoners to better themselves and learn new skills ready for work in the outside world. The prison boasts its own hair salon training up inmates as barbers, art rooms, brick-laying workshops, a cafe run by inmates, a kitchen where inmates work to provide meals for the prisoner, and a fully-fledged laundry service where inmates work and provide services in the prison as well as for businesses outside such as local hotels.

There are also a host of courtyards cleaned by prisoners, a gym, and the various wings with cells divided into varying classes of prisoners such as sexual assault offenders. The cells are largely dependent on the type of prisoner but can vary from including a bed, toilet, small storage space, sink, television, and kettle, to solitary confinement in a cell with no more than a raised platform for a bed – these are used sparingly.

Mr Blakeman added that he is proud of his role as governor and the strong team of staff behind him at HMP Bullingdon.