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HMP/YOI Rochester – clean and decent living conditions still lacking

Published:

Inspectors returning to Rochester found that little progress had been made since the full inspection in 2021, where prisoners were not getting access to purposeful activity and there were concerns about living conditions, violence, and staffing shortages.

Our primary message, after 11 months, remains the same: ‘more could have been achieved’. We did not find evidence of good progress with respect to any of the concerns we had raised and reasonable progress in only one.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

At this independent review of progress, inspectors followed up on eight recommendations. There had been some work done improve living conditions. Prisoners on one wing had recently been employed as part of a painting working group and had redecorated several cells. However, on the other wings, conditions remained poor – cells had broken plumbing, poor ventilation, and damaged flooring. Toilets were not screened in single cells, which undermined prisoners’ dignity. Many prisoners complained about mice, and despite weekly pest control visits, the vermin problem had still not been resolved.

Staffing levels remained concerning, with an attrition rate of 15% per year. Although leaders were carrying out some work to understand the reasons for the high turnover, including exit interviews, they needed to do more to grip this issue. A lack of staff was not only affecting key security issues such as the prevalence of illicit drugs but had also hindered prisoners’ rehabilitation due to the suspension of group offending behaviour programmes.

Inspectors were pleased to see that a significantly higher number of prisoners were now involved in activities, and that most of these places were full-time, giving participants about eight hours per day out of their cells. Unemployed prisoners, however, were locked up for up to 22 hours a day, including those willing to work and on waiting lists.

Colleagues at Ofsted found reasonable progress in the curriculum design, which was now better tailored to prisoners’ needs and offering a good range of qualifications.

There are considerable challenges at HMP/YOI Rochester, with its poor physical environment and problems in attracting and retaining staff. In addressing these challenges leaders have focused on involving more prisoners in work and education, with some positive results, but in almost every other area about which we raised a concern in 2021, not enough has been done to give confidence that outcomes are likely to improve.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Notes to editors

  1. Read the HMP/YOI Rochester independent review of progress, published on 8 November 2022.
  2. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
  3. HMP/YOI Rochester is a category C training and resettlement prison for adult and young adult men in Kent, with a population of 670 at the time of this visit. It comprises one older set of buildings, being the location of the original borstal, and a lower site with more modern buildings which were not designed for long-term use. Uncertainty has hung over the site since a planned closure was rescinded in 2017.
  4. Independent Reviews of Progress (IRPs) began in April 2019. They were developed because Ministers wanted an independent assessment of how far prisons had implemented HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ recommendations following particularly concerning prison inspections. IRPs are not inspections and do not result in new judgements against our healthy prison tests. Rather they judge progress being made against the key recommendations made at the previous inspection. The visits are announced and happen eight to 12 months after the original inspection. They last two and a half days and involve a comparatively small team. Reports are published within 25 working days of the end of the visit. We conduct 15 to 20 IRPs each year. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons selects sites for IRPs based on previous healthy prison test assessments and a range of other factors.
  5. At this Rochester IRP we followed up eight of the recommendations from our recent inspection and Ofsted followed up three themes. HM Inspectorate of Prisons judged that there was good progress in no recommendations, reasonable progress in one, insufficient progress in six and no meaningful progress in one. Ofsted found reasonable progress in one theme and insufficient progress two themes.
  6. A report of the most recent full inspection of HMP/YOI Rochester is available on our website, as is the accompanying media release.
  7. This inspection took place between 20 and 22 September 2022.
  8. Please email media@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.