Breaking point: the impact of a crumbling prison estate on prisoners
Population pressures and the drive to maximise capacity have placed immense strain across the prison estate. With the increasing number of men and women passing through its doors, the already deteriorating infrastructure is being pushed beyond its limits.
For years, Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) have highlighted the alarming physical decline of the prison estate. Chronic underinvestment and short-term solutions have severely compromised the resilience of these facilities, resulting in prisoners having to work, eat and sleep in appalling and sometimes inhumane conditions – and we expect prisoners to be rehabilitated in these environments.
Vermin and waste mismanagement led to unhygienic, sometimes dangerous, conditions across the estate: IMBs described cockroach infestations, biting flies infesting showers, dead rodents rotting on the wings, and cells taken out of use due to bedbugs.
- At HMP Pentonville, the Board escalated its concerns over a rat infestation in the kitchens to environmental health after their repeated reports to HMPPS went unresolved, ultimately leading to its closure.
- At HMP Bullingdon, prisoners were bitten by venomous spiders.
- At HMP Hollesley Bay, a prisoner was bitten by a rat.
Deferred maintenance and delayed repairs created serious safety implications: IMBs reported faulty windows and grilles that increased the risk of illicit items entering prisons, faulty fire alarms, a lack of in-cell sanitation in some prisons and environmental hazards such as leaking sewage and flooding.
- At HMPs Long Lartin and The Mount (among others), broken or outdated windows made it easier for drones to bring drugs and weapons into the prison.
- At HMP Pentonville, a prisoner was killed in 2016 by a weapon believed to have been smuggled in through a window, and two prisoners escaped through their windows soon after. Eight years later the identified necessary replacement of 800 insecure windows has yet to be completed.
- At HMYOI Feltham, the leaking roof of the care and separation unit resulted in the use of buckets to catch water contaminated with ferrous oxide, which could easily be knocked over when officers escorted men to cells under restraint.
- At Cookham Wood YOI, the fire alarm system showed such frequent faults that staff ceased reporting them, putting lives at risk.
Prisoners with physical disabilities faced obstacles to everyday life: IMBs reported that disabled prisoners were frequently held in locations where they could not move around the prison, with routinely broken lifts and a shortage of accessible cells.
- At HMPs Wymott and Lancaster Farms, disabled prisoners found it difficult to access work or education.
- At HMP Birmingham, a broken lift prohibited one prisoner from seeing his family as he could not reach the visits hall, and at Downview a prisoner with mobility issues was forced to navigate the stairs to reach the pharmacy.
- At HMP High Down, prisoners who were reliant on step-free access were unable to attend appointments with practitioners requiring fixed equipment, such as the dentist and optician.
IMB National Chair, Elisabeth Davies said:
“While much of the public discourse around prison maintenance has centred on prisons built in the Victorian era, the need for investment extends well beyond these facilities. You only have to step into some prisons before being struck by the urgent need for significant investment. The problem, however, is not only the lack of funding, but also the inefficient spending of what little money there is, and the lack of autonomy afforded to Governors to implement solutions.
Prisoners are enduring appalling conditions across the board, yet they often lack the motivation to submit complaints, as the dire state of things has become normalised for those most affected. Whether they are eating, working, sleeping, or receiving medical care, the shocking level of neglect reported by local IMBs across the country, and the impact of this on those living in these conditions, cannot be ignored.
The findings of local IMBs highlight the effects of ongoing underinvestment and the use of temporary fixes. As National Chair, I urge the government to heed this warning against continuing down the same path.”