Desperate times for prisons: Chief Inspector of prisons calls for sustained action to tackle the crisis
Against the backdrop of the growing prison population crisis, the 2023-24 annual report of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons paints a devastating picture of what is happening inside our jails.
With many prisons severely overcrowded and understaffed, inspectors found men and women continued to spend far too long locked in their cells with nothing to do thanks to the woeful provision of education, training or work. Out of the 32 closed prisons the report covers, 30 were rated poor or insufficiently good in our assessment for purposeful activity. Rather than prisoners participating in activities or interventions to reduce their risk of reoffending and support their mental and physical health during their time behind bars, inspectors found a surge in illicit drug use, self-harm and violence.
The report, published today, covers the findings of 79 reports, and also notes ongoing serious concerns about the provision for children in custody characterised by “drift, decline and failures” and increasing unrest in immigration detention, compounded by Home Office delays in decision-making.
Prisons must be equipped to deliver the work for which they were designed: to reduce the risk of further offences being committed and more victims of crime created. In their present state, the brutalising conditions faced by all those living and working within their walls fundamentally undermines any effort to achieve this. If we use them simply to warehouse people in squalor, surrounded by drugs and violence and failing to address their unmet mental health needs, what can we really expect when they are released?
We need sustained, decisive action to make life safer not only within prison walls, but also for our communities when people are released.
Violence was one of the most pressing concerns that inspectors raised in 14 of the 39 prisons and YOIs inspected. In some jails, the increase was stark: at Lowdham Grange, violence had increased 55%. It was also a significant issue in the three adult prisons for which the Chief Inspector issued an Urgent Notification in 2023-24. Too often, rising violence was linked to illicit drug use with around one-third (32%) of adult male prisoners reporting that it was easy to get illicit drugs and positive mandatory drug testing as high as 53% in HMP Hindley. The negative consequences of drug abuse were clear, contributing to violence and deaths in custody at Lindholme, for example, where an astonishing 21% of men said they had developed a problem with drugs since arriving at the prison.
Suicide and self-harm had also increased considerably in some men’s prisons. In around a third of the men’s prisons inspected, self-harm rate had increased significantly, and in some cases had doubled. Although nationally the rate of self-harm among women continued to rise in 2023 and was nine times higher than in the adult male estate, inspectors found some positive support in place at Peterborough, where recorded levels of self-harm had decreased significantly in the six months before the inspection. Worrying practice persisted in Eastwood Park, however, where use of force was too often used to prevent women in crisis from self-harming including to forcibly strip women’s clothes before providing anti-ligature clothing.
Particularly worrying against this backdrop were gaps in mental health care provision with vulnerable men and women left seriously unwell in conditions that were likely to exacerbate rather than improve their health. The Inspectorate’s thematic review on delays to the transfer of acutely mentally unwell patients to secure hospitals, meanwhile, found fewer than 15% of patients were being transferred within 28 days, highlighting unacceptable suffering and irreversible harm to both prisoners and the prison staff caring for them in the meantime.
The consequences of overcrowding could also be seen on prison buildings with many parts of the estate described as “filthy” or “dilapidated”. Not all of these were related to population pressures and were the consequence of sustained underinvestment in the prison estate and an inability of governors to commission repairs for their jails effectively.
The report also raises worrying concerns about shortfalls in preparing people for release, with staff shortages undermining public protection work and too many men and women continuing to be released homeless, inevitably leading to the swift recall to prison for many.
Despite the many challenges, inspections of seven open prisons revealed a part of the estate that was generally performing well, while reports on Preston, Swansea and Leicester showed that even the most overcrowded Victorian reception prisons can be reasonably safe and decent. Prisons holding men convicted of sexual offences were also mostly doing a fairly good job, although purposeful activity was not good enough in any of them. Effective leadership was cited as critical to the success of these prisons.
Notes to editors
- A copy of the full report, published on 10 September 2024, can be found on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website at: Our reports – HM Inspectorate of Prisons (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)
- HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate led by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. We help to make sure that detention in England and Wales, and Scotland for immigration, is humane, safe, respectful and helps to prepare people for release. We do that by carrying out independent inspections of prisons, young offender institutions, secure training centres, courts and places of immigration detention. Our role is to shine a light on what needs to change, but we cannot enforce it. It is up to leaders to consider the best way to respond to our concerns and use their resources and expertise to find solutions. HM Prison and Probation Service, HM Courts & Tribunals Service and the Home Office should work with establishments to support this progress.
- The annual report covers the findings of 79 reports published between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. A full list of the inspections, independent reviews of progress, thematic reviews and other sources of evidence on which the report draws is included in the report.
- The report includes information from visits to four women’s prisons, two of which are open prisons which tend to have much lower levels of self-harm.
- The findings of five immigration reports are covered, including two immigration removal centres, two short-term holding facilities and one overseas charter flight removal.
- The report also includes findings from inspections of four young offender institutions and one secure training centre, the latter jointly with Ofsted.
- During this annual reporting year, the Chief Inspector of prisons issued four urgent notifications for improvement for HMP Bristol, HMP Bedford, HMP Woodhill, and HMYOI Cookham Wood. Find out more about urgent notifications: Urgent Notifications and IRPs – HM Inspectorate of Prisons (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)
Please email media@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.