HMP Bure

What we found

Bure, a category C prison for men convicted of sexual offences, remained a safe and respectful jail with clean and well-maintained facilities. Relationships between staff and prisoners were very good, underpinned by effective key work. However, leaders had failed to address the comparatively negative experiences reported by black prisoners in the past three inspections.

Although prisoners were unlocked for most of the day, the jail was failing to fulfil its remit as a training prison with less than two-thirds of working-age men engaged in education, training or employment.

Points to note

Prisoners had very good access to the library, with 81% saying they could visit weekly – more than twice as many as comparable prisons – and 80% being active library users. It was disappointing the library’s initiatives to promote literacy were not supported by the prison’s reading strategy which, while comprehensive, was not well coordinated.