Skip to content
© Copyright, Independent Monitoring Boards 2025.

HMP Rye Hill continues to empower staff and prisoners to work together to achieve a safe community

Published:
Tag:
HMP Rye Hill

HMP Rye Hill has shown what is possible when rehabilitation is placed at the heart of prison life. In its 2024–25 annual report, published on 8 August 2025, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for HMP Rye Hill has found that this privately-run establishment is delivering exceptional safety outcomes, as well as developing successful prisoner-led initiatives and a sense of pride in the prison community.

The IMB notes that:

  • Self-harm incidents reduced significantly in this reporting year from 343 to 235, despite a major expansion of the prison.
  • Illicit drug use was exceptionally low and levels of violence reduced, with prisoners generally reporting feeling safe.
  • Positive staff-prisoner relationships were supported through joint activity around prisoner-led initiatives and the consistent delivery of at least one key worker session per month.
  • Rye Hill successfully transitioned from a category B to a category C establishment with few transfers to other prisons—an achievement that reflects careful management, stability, and a strong rehabilitative ethos.

However, it also reports that:

  • Serious national concerns remain about those serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, whose mental health continues to be negatively impacted. Despite commendable individual work being completed with IPP prisoners at Rye Hill, many feel stuck or unclear about how to progress.
  • The compassionate release process is still unnecessarily difficult, and three out of four applications this year were not completed before the prisoner died—raising concerns about delays in decision-making and the requirement for a narrow medical prognosis window.

IMB Rye Hill Chair, Pete Griffiths, said:

“In the view of the Board this is a largely exceptional prison. During the reporting year the operational capacity increased from 664 to 840 and the prison transitioned from a category B to a category C prison. Maintaining a stable regime throughout the transition has taken commitment, professionalism, compassion and a lot of hard work.

HMP Rye Hill has several prisoner-led initiatives and there is a focus on involving prisoners, where possible, at every level. This ethos has been developed over a number of years.”