HMP Dovegate

What we found

Dovegate is a privately-run category B training prison. The prison has substantial remand and long-term populations, and was performing better than others prisons with this population, with particularly good relationships between staff and prisoners.

The jail was, however failing to fulfil its role as a training prison, which was particularly disappointing because education provision was run directly by Serco, so there were none of the issues with managing education contracts often found in other prisons. While most of the long-term population was in work or education, many jobs were on the wings where prisoners were underemployed and spent much of their time with not enough to do. Boredom fuelled increased levels of violence and drug use.

Points to note

The therapeutic community continued to be a thriving and innovative provision, supporting prisoners with complex needs and behaviour. This included some impressive work with prisoners who had learning difficulties.