The level of violence and incidents of self-harm at the UK's largest prison have raised concern.
A new report into HMP Berwyn in Wrexham also found its ability to rehabilitate prisoners is hampered by a "severe shortage" of officers and probation and health care staff. The prison, which houses many prisoners from Merseyside, was subject to several unannounced inspections in May and the subsequent report highlighted eleven priorities and concerns about the way it is run.
However, the report did find leadership at the prison to be "strong", with the facility being "competently run". Inspectors said there was "every reason for confidence about the prison’s immediate future", reports NorthWalesLive.
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The HM Inspectorate of Prisons report contained four priority concerns. The first centred on how long prisoners had to wait for access to routine primary care clinics. Due to primary care staffing and inconsistent prison officer escort arrangements, patients faced long waits of up to 12 months for many routine clinics, the report found.
Prisoners also continued to spend far too long behind their doors. Too many prisoners did not have enough activity or time unlocked, especially unemployed prisoners, the report found. While full-time workers could be unlocked for about nine hours a day, most prisoners worked part-time or were unemployed and had much less time out of their cells.
There are insufficient work and education places for the population, and the prisoners who do have places often do not attend classes regularly enough. The report found more needs to be done to ensure the prison was fulfilling its role as a training establishment.
Not enough is being done to encourage prisoners to attend activities and often only about 60% of prisoners allocated to an education, training or employment activity turn up. The final priority concern surrounds the issue of staffing at the prison with "a severe shortage of band 3 officers, probation and health care staff" affecting the delivery of some services.
Though the rate of violence at the prison has fallen, it remains high in comparison to similar-sized prisons. Data is not being used well to monitor and identify trends over time, or to inform an effective action plan, the report found. The rate of self-harm was also lower than in the last report in 2019, but like the rate of violence it remains "too high", the inspectors found.
The report says that "key work was not used to support prisoners at risk of self-harm and debriefs following acts of self-harm were not always carried out". It added: "Analysis of self-harm data was too limited to measure progress and inform improved practice."
Public protection phone and mail monitoring are in "disarray" and have not been carried out for many of those posing a significant risk to the public, the report found. Inspectors are also concerned about the number of prisoners whose condition deteriorated after being taken off antipsychotic and other psychiatric medicines.
In addition to this, other key concerns were highlighted around the frequency and quality of offender manager sessions, responses to prisoner complaints, and prisoner understanding of education, training and employment sessions. That said, Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, described Berwyn as "a competently run prison", praising the leadership in place at the prison as well as the work being done to support resettlement, including finding employment and housing.
In summary, Mr Taylor said: “Leadership was strong. The governor had been in post since 2019 and was highly experienced. He made himself visible, and his energy was setting the tone in the prison. Berwyn is a competently run prison. Outcomes were either reasonable or improving and with the capable leadership we observed, there is every reason for confidence about the prison’s immediate future. We highlight eleven priorities and concerns which we hope will assist leaders going forward."
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Violence and self-harm at HMP Berwyn are down and we are boosting staff numbers through a pioneering scheme aimed at recruiting graduates into the prison service.
“We are confident more rehabilitation work will be carried out by the prison now that restrictions put in place to keep staff and prisoners safe during the pandemic have been lifted.”
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