News

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.

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.

Parc, a large prison in Bridgend, South Wales that holds 1,623 prisoners, sustained its reputation as a safe and decent prison in this most recent inspection, in which outcomes were rated as good or reasonably good in all our healthy prison tests.

HMP/YOI Woodhill near Milton Keynes and HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey are similar-sized men’s prisons that are part of the long-term, high-secure estate. Both house prisoners mainly from London and the South East who are often serving long sentences. Both jails have recently been in the headlines: Woodhill has been forced to close temporarily its high security separation centre, where prisoners are moved to prevent them radicalising other inmates. Swaleside, meanwhile, experienced serious, concerted indiscipline requiring the intervention of specialist tornado teams to restore order.

Inspectors returned to Chelmsford for the first time since the August 2021 inspection, when findings had been so disturbing that the Chief Inspector decided to invoke the Urgent Notification Protocol. At this independent review of progress it was encouraging to find that leaders had made good progress stemming the flow of illicit drugs, improving living conditions, and providing better treatment of prisoners by staff.

Inspectors returning to HMP Swaleside, a high security prison on the Isle of Sheppey, found that the prison had made little progress on the recommendations from October 2021. At the disappointing 2021 inspection, safety and purposeful activity were judged not sufficiently good, and rehabilitation and release planning was ‘poor’, the lowest grade.

Inspectors returning to HMP Nottingham, a reception and resettlement prison serving the courts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, found a prison still struggling to maintain a safe environment and a meaningful regime.

Inspectors to HMP Leeds, a reception and resettlement prison dating back to the 19th century, found a prison struggling to improve safety outcomes, although meaningful work was taking place across all of our healthy prison tests.

Inspectors returning to HMP&YOI Foston Hall found that women were still living in a violent and unsafe environment.

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.