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News

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218 news articles

HMP Liverpool – promising progress in prison with challenging history

Published:
Inspectors visiting Liverpool in July and found a calm and well-ordered prison with a positive and caring culture. This marked an impressive transformation from the jail HMI Prisons inspected in 2017, when Liverpool was in a “parlous state”.

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.

HMP/YOI Portland – impressive progress but some gaps in mental health provision

Published:
Inspectors returning to Portland found the prison in a better state than during a troubling visit in 2019. At that time, the jail was not keeping prisoners safe or providing decent living conditions. A new governor, appointed in 2020 and with a strong understanding of the issues facing the prison, had carried out good work to begin to transform the jail. However, some concerning gaps in mental health support, violence and self-harm reduction, and purposeful activity remained.

HMYOI Werrington – high levels of violence pose ongoing threat to progress

Published:
Inspectors returning to HMYOI Werrington found worryingly high levels of violence continued to dominate the institution, with a number of serious assaults taking place even during the brief period of the review.

Serious challenges remain for migrants arriving in Kent by small boats

Published:
HM Inspectorate of Prisons has today published a report from an inspection on Manston in Kent, carried out in July 2022.

HMP Channings Wood – good progress but inconsistency in care

Published:
HMP Channings Wood - good progress but inconsistency in care

Lancashire and Cumbria court custody – decent care compromised by poor conditions in some holding cells

Published:
Inspectors visited courts across Lancashire and Cumbria and found good progress since the last inspection in 2013.

HMP Pentonville – entrenched problems continue in troubled jail

Published:
Historic HMP Pentonville has received a series of poor inspection results over the last 10 years. This inspection found that recent progress will be very difficult to maintain while this ’Victorian relic’ continues to be plagued by overcrowding and poor living conditions.

Delays and confusion keeping immigration detainees behind bars unnecessarily

Published:
A review of the experience of immigration detainees held in prisons has found that they were markedly disadvantaged compared with those held in immigration removal centres (IRCs), with many in custody for long periods with little or no progress in their cases being made by the Home Office.

Guys Marsh – gaps in care despite strong and ambitious management

Published:
For a number of years, HM Inspectorate of Prisons had considered Guys Marsh a high-risk prison, and in 2014 we described it as “out of control”. We observed some improvements during our inspection in 2019, and findings at this latest inspection continued the trend of gradual progress, although key issues around safety and purposeful activity still remained.