HMP Liverpool – promising progress in prison with challenging history
Inspectors visiting Liverpool in July and found a calm and well-ordered prison with a positive and caring culture. This marked an impressive transformation from the jail HMI Prisons inspected in 2017, when Liverpool was in a “parlous state”.
The prison was now also judged safer than at both the 2017 and 2019 inspections, although there was some deterioration in provision of rehabilitation and release planning, and not enough provision of education, work and activities.
At this inspection we found a well-led, safe and respectful prison. Leaders had a decent understanding of its strengths and weaknesses, although the prison could have improved further with slightly more robust oversight in some important areas of policy and practice. This could, perhaps, be encouraged by a better and more targeted use of data and more attention to the recommendations we had made, only a third of which were achieved following our last visit.
Staff-prisoner relationships were a real strength at Liverpool and inspectors saw many good examples of positive interactions from caring and non-judgmental staff. These strong relationships underpinned the good work for reducing self-harm, which had fallen by 60% since the last inspection. Prisoners receiving support with self-harming through case management were positive about their care.
There had been a sustained refurbishment programme to improve living conditions, which was a priority given the old Victorian infrastructure, and prisoners were positive about the facilities. However, too many men were sharing cells designed for one.
Purposeful activity was still not good enough. There was an insufficient number of education, training and work places for the whole population and even available spaces weren’t always full. However, leaders had a clear vision for improving the education model to meet the needs of prisoners, and where prisoners were in education, classes and curricula were generally well-structured and of decent quality.
Staff vacancies and absences were hindering the delivery of rehabilitation and release planning. Prisoners had infrequent contact with prison offender managers and sentence plans didn’t always focus on reducing risk. However, good work was being done to support the men to keep in contact with family and friends. At the time of the inspection, the prison was transitioning out of being a reception prison to having a purely resettlement function. Rehabilitation and release planning provision needed to be properly adjusted to suit the needs of the new population.
Sustaining improvement in a challenging prison like Liverpool is a significant achievement, and this had created a platform from which to take the prison forward with confidence.
Notes to editors
- Read the HMP Liverpool report, published on 15 November 2022.
- HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
- HMP Liverpool was constructed in 1855. The primary function of the establishment is a reception prison, serving Liverpool Crown Court. Since the previous inspection HMP Liverpool no longer serves the local Magistrates’ Courts as they are served by HMP Altcourse. HMP Liverpool has a secondary function as a resettlement prison for category C prisoners. The prison comprises eight residential units. There is an in-patient facility in the health care centre.
- HMP Liverpool is an adult male prison with a reception and resettlement function.
- At the time of this inspection, the prison held 805 prisoners.
- Inspectors identified six examples of notable positive practice during this inspection.
- This inspection took place between 18–19 and 25–29 July 2022.
- Please email media@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.