A system stuck in decline: failures pile up, reality falls short of rhetoric, and meaningful change remains elusive
In the 2025 national annual report published today (10 June 2026) for the adult prison and youth estate, Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) from across the country present a consistent and deeply troubling picture: long standing failures are not being resolved but are instead being compounded. Many of the most serious concerns identified in this report mirror those raised repeatedly in IMB annual reports over the past decade.
Produced under the leadership of Jane Leech MBE as Interim National Chair, drawing on her 18 years’ experience with the IMB, the report shows that Boards continue, year after year, to raise the same fundamental concerns, with little evidence that national commitments or improvement plans are being translated into sustained change on the ground.
As a result, men, women and children in prisons and young offender institutions (YOIs) are living in increasingly unsafe and demoralising conditions, where failures once regarded as serious are at risk of becoming normalised.
Despite repeated warnings in previous IMB reports at both national and local levels, the same problems persist with striking frequency. This recurring pattern raises unavoidable questions about effectiveness, accountability and the system’s capacity to correct its course. At the same time, new pressures have emerged or intensified over the past year, often interacting with existing weaknesses to further worsen conditions. In a growing number of cases, the impact on prisoners has been so acute that Boards have judged it inappropriate to wait for their annual reporting cycle, instead raising concerns directly with ministers and officials in real time, in line with their statutory duty to safeguard those in custody.
The IMB reports the following:
Drugs drove violence, self‑harm and medical emergencies
Illicit drugs remained the single most destabilising factor across the adult estate, fuelling debt, violence, intimidation, self isolation and life threatening medical emergencies.
- At HMP High Down, IMB members recorded 13 medical emergencies in a single day, largely linked to drug use.
- At HMP Manchester, prisoners were reportedly informed in advance of a cell search, contributing to instability.
- Boards across the closed estate reported daily medical emergencies linked to drugs, placing extreme strain on healthcare and operational staff.
- Even when prisons achieved reductions in drug levels, Boards often observed spikes in debt related violence and anxiety driven self‑harm, as drug dealers sought to collect their debts, destabilising regimes further.
Deteriorating buildings exposed prisoners to inhumane conditions
Building maintenance is not a background problem: it is actively making prisons less safe, less humane, and less able to function. The physical estate is failing faster than it is being repaired, and IMBs see this as a fundamental barrier to safety, decency and reform.
- At HMP Bullingdon, the continued and seemingly uncontrolled presence of spiders caused bites severe enough to require hospital admission. In one case, a prisoner was warned that he could lose his leg.
- At HMP Isle of Wight, flooding caused water to cascade down the steps of the segregation unit, inundating the ground floor.
- At HMP Foston Hall, the Board was told that the prison was unable to afford fans to keep prisoners cool in oppressively hot cells, noting a spike in self‑harm coinciding with a period of hot weather.
- At HMP Garth, a prisoner tragically died in a cell fire after the alarm apparently failed to sound. Boards had acute concerns about fire safety across the estate, including the inadequacy of evacuation arrangements for those with mobility issues, and faulty fire alarms.
Meaningful activity and education were increasingly restricted
Cuts to education, vocational training and work left many adults and children inactive for long periods, compounding frustration, poor mental health and instability. The lived experience of custody is increasingly marked by dwindling opportunity for meaningful engagement, heightened anxiety and fading hope, calling into question whether headline assurances of improvement align with the reality on the ground.
- Across the adult estate, Boards reported widespread course cancellations, staff shortages and prisoners being transferred or released mid‑course, preventing completion of qualifications needed for progression and employment.
- At HMP Bure, equipment failures in workshops led to activities ceasing altogether. This was particularly damaging in a context where genuinely purposeful activity was already in short supply.
- Boards noted that prisoners frequently described remaining activities as “time‑filling” rather than skills based, leading to disengagement and loss of motivation.
- In YOIs, education was repeatedly disrupted by staffing shortages, violence and keep‑apart arrangements; at Wetherby, education provision was formally recognised as needing urgent improvement resulting in unacceptably poor outcomes for the children held there.
Mental health needs far outstripped available support
Adults and children with severe mental illness frequently waited months or years for transfer to appropriate facilities, remaining in segregation or highly restrictive settings instead.
- At HMP Wakefield, a prisoner remained in segregation or healthcare for more than two years, with minimal engagement with the regime or interaction with other prisoners, unable to access appropriate treatment.
- At HMP Foston Hall, a survey undertaken by the Board revealed that 57% of responding prisoners felt their mental health needs were not being met.
- In some YOIs, mental health interventions were often cancelled; at Feltham, 40% of planned therapeutic sessions did not take place in 2025, undermining support for highly vulnerable children.
Jane Leech MBE, Interim National Chair says:
“This report raises unavoidable questions about effectiveness and accountability. The passage of time means the conditions described can no longer reasonably be framed as inherited or transitional. IMBs are statutory witnesses, not campaigners, and the evidence we present year after year shows that warnings are heard but too rarely acted upon. The result is a system that absorbs criticism but fails to correct its course. While IMBs do identify examples of good practice, these tend to be driven by the motivation of individuals rather than embedded consistently across the system.
The bleakness of this picture matters because it is felt every day by people in custody. Poor conditions, limited regimes and unsafe environments damage mental and physical wellbeing, undermine rehabilitation, and erode dignity. They also affect public safety, the likelihood of reoffending, staff retention, and trust in the justice system. For both adults and children in custody, the prevailing experience is not one of progress, but of stagnation and decline. IMBs’ findings suggest that unless there is a decisive shift away from denial, short-term fixes and rhetorical reassurance, prisons and YOIs will continue to deteriorate, not through sudden collapse, but through the steady normalisation of failure.”