News

As prison population numbers continue to rise, Charlie Taylor considers the implications and warns there will be consequences for all of us.

Earlier this year, we began publishing easy read summaries of our reports on prison inspections. Tamsin Williamson, Communications and Publications Manager at HMI Prisons, led the project and explains here why this was so important to the organisation.

It is well known that prisoners who maintain contact with their families are significantly less likely to reoffend on their release. During the pandemic, work to support those ties faced new challenges. Following International Day of Parents, Martin Kettle considers some of the work by prisons to maintain the vital relationship between parents and children.

Following an inspection of a previously failing prison, Birmingham, Charlie Taylor considers how an impressive governor used an Urgent Notification as a catalyst to transform it.

On International Day of Families, Angus Jones, Team Leader for Children and Young People, reflects on the vital importance of families for children in custody.

Last March, HMI Prisons and Ofsted published a report into the teaching of reading in prisons. Having previously been a teacher, I was concerned about the low levels of literacy I had seen in our prisons and our report confirmed some of my worst fears.

On International Women’s Day 2023, Sandra Fieldhouse, Team Leader for Women, explores some of the particular needs of women in custody.

This blog was written by Angus Jones, Team Leader for Children and Young People. Find out more about the conditions and experience of children in detention by reading our annual report on Children in custody: 2021-2022.

At every inspection, HMI Prisons assesses the progress of the prison against four areas – safety, respect, purposeful activity and rehabilitation and release planning – and awards a score: four for good; three for reasonably good; two for not sufficiently good; and one for poor.

Last month, we published "Thematic review: The experiences of adult black male prisoners and black prison staff". One of the recommendations for building trust put forward by prisoners and staff was making and sharing food together. In this blog, lead inspector Hindpal Singh Bhui shares his experience of visiting a prison to see how this can work in practice.