News

Royal Holloway’s Magna Carta Lecture given by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, at the Middle Temple Hall in London, 6 June 2022

Inspectors to HMP Forest Bank, the only reception and resettlement prison in the Greater Manchester area, found a prison unable to fulfil its role successfully. The prison held 1,354 prisoners, nearly 300 above its baseline capacity, and as a consequence, prisoners were often diverted to other establishments on arrival, undermining the core focus of the jail.

Inspectors returning to HMP Belmarsh, the only reception prison in the high security estate, were encouraged to find that progress had been made since their last full inspection in July and August 2021. At the 2021 inspection, inspectors had been concerned to find high levels of violence, inadequate governance of the use of force, poor use of data, and severely limited time out of cell for prisoners, despite the lifting of pandemic restrictions.

Inspectors to HMP Winchester, a category B local men’s prison with a separate category C unit, were disappointed to find that no meaningful progress had been made since the last inspection in 2019. Winchester continued to be one of the most violent prisons in the country.

HMYOI Werrington, a young offender institution near Stoke-on-Trent, was judged poor in both safety and purposeful activity by HM Inspectorate of Prisons. Violence levels over the last six months were higher than any other establishment in England and Wales.

Inspectors returning to court custody facilities in Kent found that positive progress in outcomes for detainees were being hampered by staff shortages.

HMP/YOI Bronzefield, a privately-run prison for female adults and young offenders, saw its scores drop in the areas of respect and release and rehabilitation planning in its latest inspection.

Sandra Fieldhouse, Team Leader for Women's prisons at HM Inspectorate of Prisons.

Inspectors found a strong rehabilitative culture at the Military Corrective Training Centre (MCTC) in Colchester, a facility holding service personnel who have been detained under Armed Forces law. At the time of the visit by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in January, the centre held 33 men.

As a former teacher, I often ask prisoners how they got on in school; the answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, is often ‘not well’. Many describe having struggled through but survived primary school, only to be expelled in their first two or three years of secondary school. Others never spent much time in education at all, having somehow through slipped through the net, often because of frequent changes of address or time spent overseas. A large proportion of prisoners also have a learning difficulty that added to their problems at school.