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Leaders at HMP Coldingley had balanced managing the risk of COVID-19 with the benefits of providing a good amount of time out of cell, HM Inspectorate of Prisons found. Although the prison was operating within national COVID-19 restrictions, prisoners at the category C training prison in Surrey spent up to seven hours a day unlocked. This was in stark contrast with other jails recently inspected, where they rarely spent more than two hours out of their cells. During checks, inspectors found just 4% of prisoners locked up.

Inspectors who visited HMP/YOI Deerbolt in County Durham were disappointed to find a continued lack of time out of cell and activities on offer for the young men held in the category C training prison and young offender institution.

An independent review of progress (IRP)at HMP Hull, a category B prison holding around 900 prisoners, showed an encouraging commitment to improvement, although a lack of action in purposeful activity and health care demonstrated that more needed to be done.

The UK’s Armed Forces Service Custody Facilities (SCFs) continue to provide “extremely good” treatment of the detainees they hold, according to an inspection carried out by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in December 2021. The Inspectorate has been invited, since 2013, to inspect these short-term custodial facilities where service personnel are detained for up to 96 hours pending charge or conviction for service offences, or for up to 14 days if convicted of a service offence. As with its inspections of other areas of detention, the Inspectorate focused on the outcomes for detainees, as measured against independent Expectations criteria.

HMP/YOI Swinfen Hall, a category C prison for young adult and adult men in Staffordshire, was judged by inspectors revisiting the jail to be benefitting from a clear vision and leadership culture.

Failing to teach prisoners to read leaves up to half unable to access vital rehabilitative education while in prison, according to new research by Ofsted and HMI Prisons. Without the ability to read, released prisoners will find it harder to make a successful return to society.

Outcomes for children held in HMYOI Wetherby – the largest young offender institution (YOI) in the country – were found by inspectors to have declined in the provision of purposeful activity and resettlement. Although the number of children had been much reduced, the prison had lost ground, inspectors said, partly due to the pandemic.

Leaders at HMP Durham, a men’s category B prison covering the north of England, had brought down levels of violence by almost two-thirds since the previous inspection, said HM Inspectorate of Prisons. Joint working between security, drug strategy and safety managers had led to the reduction, and the rate of violence and disorder was below the average for a local prison in England. This was reflected in the Inspectorate’s survey of prisoners, where fewer men than at the previous inspection said they had experienced verbal abuse, physical assault, threats or intimidation, or theft.

When I first became a head teacher, my school was in a troubled state. Some established staff members had just left, the children were anxious and physical restraint had become the first rather than the last resort. There were many things that needed to be fixed, but I knew that if we did not get the basics right, we would never make progress. For the first six months I had three main priorities: find and recruit effective staff, keep the children in the classroom (they were in the habit of jumping over the fence) and rigorously enforce our behaviour management policy, establishing clear expectations and making sure that rewards and sanctions were consistently applied.

Many prisoners at HMP Thameside, a category B local men’s prison based in south-east London, were spending too much time locked in their cells, HM Inspectorate of Prisons found. Some, such as remand prisoners – 61 of whom had been on remand for over a year – were locked up for up to 23.5 hours a day. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said the prison had been too slow to increase the amount of time that prisoners were unlocked after an outbreak of COVID-19 and more should have been done to open up the regime.