HMP Forest Bank

What we found

Prisoner on prisoner assaults were high and too many drugs and other illicit items were getting into the jail despite work to restrict the supply. Time out of cell was reasonably good for prisoners involved in purposeful activity, with those in part-time work typically getting around eight hours a day unlocked, and unemployed prisoners got 4.5 hours out of their cells. More needed to be done to meet the needs of the growing remand and unsentenced prisoner population.

Points to note: Levels of self-harm continued to be high and officer shortages created unacceptable delays in patients accessing emergency hospital care for some acute and potentially life-threatening health conditions.