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Manchester prison’s filthy wings dominated by organised crime, drugs and violence

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The notorious Manchester prison has become the latest jail to receive an urgent notification for improvement after inspectors found standards had “collapsed” with filthy wings, an infestation of vermin including rats, and catastrophic levels of illicit drugs linked to organised crime with very high rates of violence.

Manchester was not safe enough: the prison’s own data showed it to be amongst the most violent of all adult men’s prisons in England and Wales, with the highest rate of serious assaults. Since the last inspection, there had been six self-inflicted deaths and a further three deaths with suspected links to drug abuse. There had been a steep rise in the rate of self-harm, which was among the highest for adult men’s prisons.

Illegal drug use was driving much of the instability in the prison: the number of weapons and other illicit items found in recent months were amongst the highest of all prisons holding adult men and the proportion of prisoners testing positive for drug use was very high at 39%. Given the severity of the situation, inspectors were concerned by how long it was taking the prison service to install more secure cell windows or to replace damaged netting over exercise yards to limit the delivery of drugs and other illicit items by drones. Prisoners had used the heating elements from their kettles to burn holes in newly fitted, supposedly secure windows, meaning that they were not effective in preventing drone access. Contractors doing the installation had been being threatened by prisoners for interrupting their supply.

Further fuelling the demand for drugs, men spent far too long locked in their cells with nothing to do. Inspectors found only 19% of prisoners had left their wing to attend purposeful activity, which was shocking in a jail whose stated purpose is as a training prison. There were significant weaknesses in the provision of education, training and work, and attendance was low and too many places remained unfilled.

Although not overcrowded, leaders at every level had allowed living conditions to become squalid. There were chronic rodent infestations, including rats, which were made worse by the amount of food thrown out of windows. Many cell windows were smashed, and prisoners were ripping up foam from mattresses and pillows to push into the window frame to stop the cold from getting in.

Staff morale was, unsurprisingly, low. Many officers were new to their roles yet were assigned to work with very serious, sophisticated and often aggressive offenders. Wings were chaotic, with inexperienced officers struggling to manage prisoners or to challenge poor or even criminal behaviour. While prison leaders were aware their staff needed more support to be competent in their roles, most officers said they had never or rarely met with a manager or mentor to discuss their progress in their time at the jail.

“This was a very difficult inspection with my team shocked by the level of decline they found in Manchester. The prison was fundamentally not safe enough for those living and working in there. Drugs present a critical threat to the security of our prisons and it was very disappointing to see that some key measures in the physical security of a prison like Manchester, holding many men with known links to organised crime, were inadequate. The prison service must act urgently to address this and to support staff to manage a very challenging population of prisoners. But Manchester is not alone in facing these challenges which are becoming endemic in many parts of the prison estate and demand the attention of the government.”
Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Notes to editors

  1. This inspection took place between 17 September – 3 October 2024.
  2. Read the letter announcing the Urgent Notification at Manchester and the Manchester debriefing paper sent to the Secretary of State on 9 October 2024.
  3. The Urgent Notification process was introduced in 2017 and is a means of raising immediate, urgent concerns following an inspection which requires a response and action plan from the Secretary of State within 28 days. A full report from the inspection is still published in the normal time frame of within 14 weeks of the inspection. The Urgent Notification is supported by the evidence of the debrief from the inspection, which is presented to the governor, and which outlines the key issues which will be explored in more detail in the full report once published.
  4. We invoke an Urgent Notification by writing to the Secretary of State for Justice within seven calendar days of completing an inspection setting out our concerns. We also tell the governor of the prison that we are doing so. The Secretary of State then has 28 days following publication of the Urgent Notification to reply to us setting out an action plan of improvement. Find out more about Urgent Notifications.
  5. The inspection team assesses the establishment’s performance against the applicable healthy establishment tests using the following judgements: 4 – outcomes for prisoners are good, 3 – outcomes for prisoners are reasonably good, 2 – outcomes for prisoners are not sufficiently good and 1 – outcomes for prisoners are poor. In this inspection, the scores were Safety – 1, Respect – 1, Purposeful activity – 1, Preparation for release – 3.
  6. Manchester is the eighth prison to be issued with an Urgent Notification since November 2022 and the second category B training prison. The other prisons are Exeter, Woodhill, Bristol, Bedford, Wandsworth, Rochester and Cookham Wood YOI.
  7. 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.
  8. Please email media@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.