Prison worse than in Victorian times, says report

HMP Wandsworth had its “worst year in living memory” in terms of inhumane conditions, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) found.

About 1,200 inmates shared “miserable, filthy and cramped” living conditions in “dilapidated” cells that had been built in 1851 for single occupancy.

Nearly a year after the alleged escape of prisoner Daniel Khalife, violence has increased in the “chaotic” wings and staff have often been unable to confirm the whereabouts of prisoners.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which had previously announced additional staff and £100 million in funding The prison official said it had “inherited a justice system in crisis.”

The “dangerously overcrowded and vermin-infested” Victorian prison was originally built to hold fewer than 1,000 prisoners.

However, the population has increased to 1,513 over the past 12 months, according to the latest report, despite urgent population reduction recommendations made last year to improve conditions.

In the last reporting year to June, there were ten deaths in custody, compared to four the year before.

The number of violent crimes, including serious assaults, increased overall. There were almost 1,000 attacks on prisoners and staff, compared to around 350 in 2017.

Most of the prisoners were unemployed and spent more than 22 hours a day locked up.

The staffing levels are only 50 percent of the required level and 50 percent of prison guards have less than one year of professional experience, the report says.

Staff shortages have caused ongoing problems in the provision of healthcare, and a new multi-million pound health centre has remained unused more than two years after its planned opening date in 2021.

The rate of self-harm was high and continuing to rise. Around 40% of emergency calls were not answered within five minutes.

More than half of the prisoners surveyed said that it was easy to obtain illegal drugs and that the smell of cannabis was omnipresent.

Only 41% of inmates said that staff treated them with respect. This is significantly less than in comparable prisons.

The problems in the prison are due to a number of factors, the report said.

These included deteriorating infrastructure, staffing problems and inadequate or unhelpful management, as well as a lack of financial support from His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, wrote to the Foreign Minister on 8 May to initiate an “urgent notification procedure” after the unannounced inspection.

IMB chairman Matthew Andrews said: “For HMP Wandsworth and the men whose treatment we oversee, this year has been as bad as any in our memory, and in many ways worse.

“The recently published report was extremely critical, but contained little that surprised us.

“Many of the same issues were raised in previous IMB annual reports and ignored by the Department of Justice.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The new government has inherited a justice system in crisis and is being forced to take action and get the situation under control across the prison sector so that we can lock up dangerous offenders, protect the public and make prisons safer for hard-working staff.”