The Act Part 2 – Prisons
11.Sections 16 to 20 remove some of the differences in the ways in which contracted-out prisons operate by giving their directors and prisoner custody officers powers comparable to those which governors and prison officers in directly-managed prisons already possess. These sections also make equivalent provision in Secure Training Centres, where appropriate. Sections 21 to 24 reforms of assisting a prisoner to escape and the existing offence of bringing proscribed articles into a prison, taking proscribed articles out of prison and create a new offence of taking photographic images inside a prison. Section 25 removes the requirement for prisons to have a medical officer. Section 26 Changes the name of “Boards of Visitors” to “Independent Monitoring Boards” and removes the requirement for two magistrates to be members of a Board. Section 27 clarifies who may be authorised to undertake limited searches of prisoners in contracted-out prisons.