Officers at an under-fire prison fear severe job losses if the jail is sold off.

But staff at Ford Open Prison, near Arundel, are afraid if they protest too much against the threatened privatisation, they will only seal the jail's fate.

The Argus revealed last week the Prison Service had demanded improvements at Ford, or it would invite private firms to bid to take over.

New governor Fiona Radford has promised to keep the jail in the public sector by improving its record on drug-testing, abscondments and resettlement.

The Prison Officers' Association (POA) believes the performance-testing scheme, which challenges prisons to improve or be contracted out, is more concerned with cutting costs.

The last two prisons to be performance-tested were HMP Liverpool and HMP Dartmoor. Both passed after drawing up plans for improvements and cash savings and were allowed to stay in the public sector.

Andy Darken, the POA representative for Ford, said: "This isn't about improving performance, it's about reducing costs and cutting staff. That will happen now, whether Ford actually gets privatised or not.

"I don't know of any prison that has been performance-tested and hasn't reduced staff.

"But if we don't participate in the performance testing, or refuse to accept any job cuts, the Prison Service will automatically put the prison out to tender. We've got a gun to our heads."

If formally chosen for performance testing, Ford would be given four months to draw up an improvement plan and then two months for it to be evaluated.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The absolute worst-case outcome is privatisation.

"Private sector bids will only be invited once the in-house bid has been rejected."

Tuesday June 08, 2004