STAFF at Portland YOI are making good progress, but there is still a long way to go.

Inspectors heaped praised on changes made since the last report a year ago, but they warn more needs to be done to bring the regime up to scratch.

They singled out as one of several success stories a new course to help young offenders back into society after finishing their sentences. More than 80 per cent of prisoners told inspectors the course was useful.

Resettlement programmes were introduced for all young offenders last September, offering advice on housing and employment when they leave prison.

The YOI was recently granted nearly half-a-million pounds in Home Office funding over the next year, and more in future years, to develop the programme.

John Skelton, head of through-care at the prison, said: "The course was initially set up with just £15,000 and shows what can be achieved with limited resources.

"Another success has been sending young offenders on licence to the Centre for Adolescent Rehabilitation in Devon, which helps them break the cycle of offending. Portland was the pilot area and it is working well."

Only of two of 12 Portland prisoners who have completed the CFAR programme have committed other offences since leaving the YOI.

Prisoner Michael Flook, 20, said: "The resettlement programme has been very useful. It has sown a positive seed in my mind. There is a job waiting for me when I get out and, in the long run, I hope to go back to college and train as a fitness instructor."

The juvenile wings at the YOI were commended for introducing a successful anti-bullying strategy, which is being extended to cover young offenders - prisoners aged 18 to 21.

Inspectors also praised an incentive and privileges scheme for juveniles based on the football league, with prisoners moving up through the divisions and earning privileges based on good behaviour.

The report says: "They have put in place a most imaginative scheme, and we commend it as a model of good practice for adoption elsewhere."

However, violence continues to cast a shadow over the YOI. The report says the Hardy unit, where inmates are sent for the first few weeks, is "not a safe place for new arrivals".

Inspectors witnessed a "serious assault" by one young offender on another inmate during their visit and they said the showers were being used as a place to "settle scores".

Figures quoted in the report show assaults, self-harm and suicide attempts by prisoners are increasing.

A total of 38 juveniles and 36 young offenders cut themselves deliberately between January and September 2000 compared with 34 juveniles and 16 young offenders between January and December 1999. There was also an increase in hanging and overdose bids.

Assaults rose, with 48 attacks by prisoners on each other between March and October 2000 compared with 42 between April 1999 and March 2000.

Attacks by prisoners on staff increased from 28 to 43.

Governor Kevin Lockyer said the Hardy unit had been under review at the time of the inspection and some of the staff had been changed since then.

He denied Portland YOI was a violent institution. He said: "Incidents of violence are very low if you compare Portland with other young offender institutions."

Jail never far from controversy in a year of turmoil

PORTLAND'S Young Offender Institution has never been far from controversy during a year of turmoil.

Several prison officers were injured when a roof top protest turned nasty last month. Two inmates hurled roof tiles and an officer needed medical treatment for a wound to one of his arms.

There was rioting the following day as prisoners used bed ends and other weapons to smash through walls dividing their cells.

Deputy governor Peter Mauhood was sacked in April after an internal Prison Service inquiry found him guilty of assaulting a prisoner.

The Crown Prosecution Service did not bring any criminal proceedings against Mr Mauhood and the Prison Officers' Association slammed the decision to dismiss him.

Six suspended prison officers were cleared following a police investigation into accusations of abusive treatment of prisoners. The Howard League for Penal Reform presented police with a dossier containing allegations stretching back 15 years.

The inquiry angered prison officers, who claimed inmates were "chasing compensation" after the Howard League appealed for abuse sufferers to come forward.

Prison staff criticised the 'red band' system allowing trusted prisoners to guard fellow inmates after a convict escaped in October last year. The prisoner, who was serving a sentence for burglary, went on the run for five hours before being recaptured.

In an interview in January, the then chief inspector of prisons Sir David Ramsbotham told Reader's Digest magazine a tour of Portland YOI was among the most distressing he had made.

He claimed the jail operated a "regime of terror", and said he was shocked that some prisoners were still 'slopping out' - using buckets as toilets - a practice abolished in 1996.

Martin Narey, head of the Prison Service, branded the YOI a "hell-hole" at the service's annual conference held in Nottingham in February. The prison chief described conditions at the prison as a "moral outrage".

He singled out several jails, including Portland YOI, which he said were "terrible places, which can't be changed". Previously he had praised staff and told them conditions were improving.

Mr Narey also found himself caught in the middle of a hostage drama involving two prisoners during a visit in December.

The then Home Secretary Jack Straw announced in March that Portland would stop taking prisoners under the age of 18 from next year. Staff expressed concern about the impact of the decision on the jail's future.

Planning permission was recently approved for a £15 million refurbishment of cells after Home Office funding was granted last September.