Government slammed over damning inspection report for HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes

The government has been slammed over running the country's jails following a damning inspection report for HMP Woodhill published yesterday. (28/11)

MK’s Woodhill Prison was deemed ‘fundamentally unsafe’ due to the level of violence with staff at the jail subjected to the highest rate of serious assaults in England and Wales. Bullying and intimidation by prisoners was also commonplace according to prison inspectors following an unannounced visit in August, as reported in the MK Citizen here

The report prompted the Chief Inspector of Prisons to write to the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor to issue an Urgent Notification for improvement.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has now issued a response criticising the government over plans ‘to build new prisons when it can’t run the jails it has’.

Chief executive Andrea Coomber, said: “When people are sent to prison for serious offences, it is imperative that they are given the support they need in an environment that will help them to turn their lives around and move on from crime.

“This does not happen in Woodhill. Staff shortages are chronic, and they have led to a surge in drugs, violence and self-harm. Locking men up for 20 plus hours a day in such a prison and expecting them to somehow be less dangerous upon release makes us all less safe. Why is the government pressing ahead with plans to build more prisons when it can't safely run the jails it already has?”

The report states inspectors found the highest rates in the country for use of force by staff and serious assaults against staff. More than seven in 10 prisoners said they had felt unsafe.

Severe staff shortages meant men were locked inside their cells for more than 21 hours a day. Sixty-five per cent of inmates said they had a mental health problem, and 853 incidents of self-harm were recorded over the past year.

Illicit drug use was a ”serious problem”. The self-harm rate was very high and the prison’s response to these incidents was inadequate and communal areas of the prison were in some parts, filthy.

Conditions were so bad that inspectors invoked an urgent notification, giving the Secretary of State for Justice 28 days to respond with an action plan for improvement.

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, said: “This was a very concerning inspection. A little over a month after issuing an Urgent Notification for HMP Bristol, it is deeply troubling to report on another prison where both staff and prisoners felt fundamentally unsafe.

"Woodhill had the highest rate of serious assaults on staff, as well as levels of self-harm among male prisoners. Woodhill is a complex, high-risk prison, holding prisoners convicted of serious offences; it simply cannot operate effectively with such chronic staff shortages. Urgent support is needed from HMPPS to help Woodhill and other establishments to develop credible, long-term plans that improve staff recruitment, and, crucially, staff retention."

“It should be of considerable concern that only a third of prisoners at Woodhill said that their experience would make them less likely to reoffend in the future, a far lower proportion than at similar prisons.”

You can read the latest inspection report here