Prisoners locked up for too long, poor access to purposeful activity, a worrying loss of staff, concerns for women's well-being, children let down and haphazard immigration arrangements are the key findings of the Chief Inspector of Prisons in his annual report, published today.
HMI Prisons
4,393 posts
We are an independent inspectorate which scrutinises the conditions and treatment of prisoners and other detainees and reports on our findings.
London
Joined January 2013
- Statement from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons on the Queen's Speech.
- On Wednesday, @charlie_taylor6 wrote to the Secretary of State invoking an Urgent Notification for HMYOI Cookham Wood after finding boys held in solitary confinement in an inspection last week. Read the press release and letter to the SoS: justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/med…
- This morning we learnt that former Chief Inspector of Prisons, David Ramsbotham, has died.
- "Prisoners are locked in their cells, doubled up, for long periods of time with not enough to do. If prisons have a role in rehabilitation, I'm not sure how that fits into this model." @charlie_taylor6 tells @CommonsJustice about the impact of overcrowding.
- WATCH @charlie_taylor6 explain what inspectors found at HMYOI Cookham Wood last week, and why he felt forced to demand immediate action by issuing an urgent notification to @AlexChalkChelt
00:00 - Published today: our latest thematic, ‘What happens to prisoners in a pandemic?’ We spoke to prisoners about the effects of COVID-19 restrictions. Read the report and hear audio clips of prisoners’ comments: justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/ins… Read the summary: justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/med…
- "Oakwood is the best prison I have seen in my time as Chief Inspector. I hope other governors and leaders in the prison service will be able to learn from its success." Read @charlie_taylor6's latest blog on HMP Oakwood: hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/news/what-make…
- Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, has demanded intervention by the Secretary of State for Justice to save lives and protect prisoners in the “fundamentally unsafe” HMP Nottingham. Read about the first @HMIPrisonsnews ‘Urgent Notification’ - bit.ly/1MMDRR5
- Our new report, A thematic review of weekends in prison, has found access to education, employment, exercise or time out of cell are the worst they have ever been, and significantly poorer at weekends. Read the review: Weekends in prison (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)
- Hindpal Singh Bhui, one of our inspection team leaders, received an OBE in the Queen's New Year Honours, for services to custody facilities during Covid 19. Hindpal leads on immigration detention inspections and has also led many inspections of prisons. Well done, Hindpal.
- "I don’t expect the public to care about prisoners... What is important, though, is how prisoners are treated – because that has a direct impact on how they behave on release." A former prisoner talks to @InsideTimeUK about life in HMP Dartmoor: insidetime.org/i-chose-to-iso…
- The joint thematic review of outcomes for girls in custody, published today, found the national youth custody system was failing to provide vulnerable girls with the support they needed, despite the best efforts of staff. Read the report - justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/ins…
- Our thematic review of the experiences of adult black male prisoners and black prison staff will be published tomorrow morning. We interviewed 100 black prisoners, 17 key managers and 66 other staff of all ethnicities. Links to the report and press release will be tweeted here.









