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Brook House, an immigration removal centre located next to Gatwick airport, was providing decent standards of care, but many detainees were anxious about their future because of delays in case progression and limited information provided by the Home Office.

The national youth custody system is failing to provide very vulnerable girls with the environment and support they need, according to a joint thematic inspection by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, HM Inspectorate of Probation, Ofsted, Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW). Inspectors spoke to girls who were currently detained, girls and women who had been recently released, and young women who had transitioned to an adult prison after turning 18.

HMP Onley, a category C training and resettlement prison in rural Northamptonshire, was now a safer prison, but acute staffing shortages were having a severe impact on the provision of activity and progression for prisoners, according to inspectors.

Inspectors to HMP Berwyn, a category C training prison in North Wales, found a strong leadership team providing decent outcomes, but improvement was needed in purposeful activity and rehabilitation and release planning. The prison, one of the newest and largest in the estate, held 1,835 men at the time of the inspection.

The inspection of HMP Featherstone, a category C training prison near Wolverhampton, found a safer prison with a reasonably good regime. However, its 661 prisoners were let down by poor offender management which limited their opportunities to progress.

Inspectors to HMP Lewes, a category B prison in Sussex, were disappointed by a lack of progress in safety, respect, and purposeful activity. The 520 men held in the jail were spending long periods locked up in dirty conditions, with very limited access to work, education, or activity.

Inspectors to HMP Wayland in Norfolk found a prison struggling to recruit and retain staff and unable to provide adequate conditions in which prisoners can live, learn, and work. The category C jail held 890 men at the time of the inspection and had recently been labelled a ‘black’ site for staff recruitment, enabling an uplift in starting pay for officers.

Two centres holding nine men who could not be managed in mainstream prison environments were providing safe and reasonable conditions, but were not focused enough on changing prisoners’ behaviour, according to HM Inspectorate of Prisons. Inspectors visited the separation centres in HMP Frankland, County Durham, and HMP Woodhill, Buckinghamshire in April 2022.

Inspectors to HMP Spring Hill, an open prison in Buckinghamshire, found a safe and reasonably respectful establishment, but the prisoners held there were underemployed and unmotivated by the work, education, and activities programmes which were central to the function of the prison.

Today, there are fewer than 500 children in custody in England and Wales. This is down largely to the success of diversion schemes over the last 10 years and, more recently, the impact of the pandemic. While this decline in the population is positive for children and society in general, it has created its own set of challenges, notes Angus Jones, Team Leader for Children and Young People.