The controversial policy for sex offenders to end their sentences at Prescoed's open prison caused uproar in the community - especially after the escape of a convicted rapist this month. Rhiannon Beacham went behind the scenes at the camp to find out the reasons behind the move.

HMP Prescoed is a sprawling camp covering 600 acres of countryside, about three miles from Usk.

Trees surround the prison, but there are no walls or barbed wire.

The boundaries are not physical, they are self-imposed, but this does not mean inmates will avoid punishment if they are breached.

The first sex offenders arrived at Prescoed on September 27, despite a year of protesting by residents and politicians.

There are currently six such offenders at the prison and the Home Office aim is to accommodate up to 40.

But Phillip Morgan, governor of both Usk and Prescoed prisons, who gave the Argus unprecedented access to the facility, said there would only ever be that many sex offenders at the site if they are "suitable" for open conditions.

"We wouldn't take more than 10 sex offenders serving life sentences, and the total we will take is up to 40.

"But if they're not suitable, they won't come here. If we haven't got the right prisoners we'll never get up to 40."

Mr Morgan showed us all the documentation needed to be completed successfully for a sex offender at Usk closed prison to be transferred to Prescoed.

And he stressed that even prisoners at Usk are Category C, with A being the highest and D the lowest.

He said reports are gathered from each member of a board made up of representatives from the prison service, the police and the probation service, a community psychiatric nurse, psychologists who specialise in sex offender treatment, and officers who work with the individual on a daily basis.

The board will look at matters including current public protection measures and treatment undertaken, accommodation problems, drug and alcohol problems, and child protection issues.

"We won't put sex offenders in open conditions unless they've successfully passed a sex offender's treatment programme which lasts eight months. In the open prison they will undergo a booster programme. They also have to be deemed suitable by all the agencies involved in the process," he said.

Mr Morgan, who has been much criticised, is keen to stress that it is a national policy and he is only fulfilling Home Offices wishes.

Eligible sex offenders have been transferred to open prisons for resettlement into the community for more than 20 years, it is just the first time it has happened in Gwent.

He said: "The Home Office argument is that they have to release them and if they're going to release them we have to do it as safely as possible. The Prison Service doesn't protect the public by locking prisoners up behind four walls, because they're going to have to release them. Our job is to release them as safely as possible, with family links, housing and qualifications to enable them to get further paid work.

"Lots of sex offenders used to be teachers or worked with children, and we have to find them new skills to work in different areas. We shouldn't only resettle offenders who've committed crimes acceptable to us.

"I think Prescoed is a very sensible place to do it. It's the only jail in the country where the closed training site (Usk) is governed and staffed by the same people as the open site, so we already have prior knowledge of the prisoners.

"No risk assessment is infallible because we are dealing with people."

He said: "The image of a sex offender is very much a media generated image of a monster. The ones that are like that we wouldn't transfer here.

"People have this idea that because they've committed a sexual offence they are ill and need to be cured. That's wrong. They are not ill and are not patients, they are prisoners who have committed a criminal offence.

"Many will have committed offences by grooming victims over ten to 15 years and are not likely to run off into the community and attack people. Some are 60 or 70 years old. It may have been committed within the family group many years ago.

"A large number of sex offenders get a community penalty and are out there already."

He said: "For lifers, if their risk doesn't reduce they'll never get to Prescoed.

"And if someone has, say, a five-year sentence and does no training and is in denial of their offence, they won't go to Prescoed - but once they've done their sentence they will be released.

"Because they can't address their behaviour, they're as dangerous as the day they came in.

"The first stage is getting them to accept they did it, then working with them to put them in open conditions.

"We don't transfer sex offenders from any other prison, only Usk. It's one of the agreements that came out of the public consultation process."

Mr Morgan admitted that there had been "a small amount of animosity" from other prisoners towards the sex offenders at Prescoed.

"One of our concerns was that we have to start integrating sex and ordinary prisoners to live together. The majority have no issue, but a small number have tried bullying tactics and have since been moved on."

He said that every time the role of HMP Prescoed changed, whether taking on more offenders or a different type of offender, the staff changed accordingly.

There was no issue with understaffing, he said, because Prescoed was a popular place to work, currently employing 250.