HMP Winchester Urgent Notification

‘My reasons for this Urgent Notification are:

Violence and drug use was very high: serious assaults against staff were the highest of all reception prisons and serious assaults against prisoners were the second highest. Prisoners reported violence was caused by drugs, debt, and frustrations at staff failure to deal with the most basic requests. Forty-seven per cent of prisoners surveyed said it was easy to get illicit drugs and random drug testing in August returned a positive rate of 41%.

Appalling conditions posed risks to safety and security: many cells, including first night accommodation, had graffiti, which was often offensive, insufficient or broken furniture and damaged phone sockets. Damp and mould caused by poor ventilation was so bad that inspectors questioned whether some cells were fit for habitation. Physical security was weak – in one case a prisoner on B wing removed his cell door – and more than a third of CCTV cameras were not working. Substantial investment was needed to fix failing infrastructure across the prison site.

Poor time out of cell impacted prisoner’s mental health: most prisoners got just 2.5 hours a day out of their cells and our checks found less than a third were engaging in purposeful activity during the working day. The rate of self-harm had increased 22% since our February 2022 inspection and was the third highest of all reception prisons. There had also been two self-inflicted deaths in that period. Prisoners were frustrated by a lack of activity, insufficient mental health support and an inability to use phones to contact their families. Some men waited weeks to have their telephone numbers approved.

Inexperienced staff and leadership failures stopped prisoners’ basic needs being met: the full quota of prison officers had been recruited and staff-prisoner relationships were generally better than at our last inspection, but there remained an urgent need to build staff competence and confidence. Although we found some motivated middle managers, most lacked experience, and leaders had not done enough to make sure prisoners’ basic needs were met.

Martin Lomas, HM Deputy Chief Inspector of Prisons