HMP Millsike was unready, understaffed and unsafe upon opening, say independent monitors

HMP Millsike is a privately run Mitie Care and Custody prison that opened in April 2025. In its first annual report, published on 3 September 2026, the prison’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) found that:

• The opening was chaotic, with basic processes, like drawing keys, locking doors and counting prisoners, not yet established.
• There were consistent staff shortages, with the remote location of the prison making hiring difficult. In addition to this, staff were in the main inexperienced, demonstrating uncertainty about the regime and processes, which impacted the safety, security and fair treatment of prisoners.
• Design faults in other new prisons have been repeated at HMP Millsike, leaving Mitie to solve such problems as blind spots for officers on landings, no gym, no air conditioning in workshops or houseblocks, and inadequate reception space.
• HMPPS appeared to accept poor running of the prison on the grounds that such places take several years to settle. The Board is disappointed that HMPPS considers inhumane treatment of prisoners to be an acceptable cost of that.

However, the Board is also pleased to report that:

• Many of these problems have been tackled, or are in the process of being addressed, following the appointment of a new and experienced Interim Director in February 2026.
• The library is an ‘inspirational and enthusiastic place’ which has boosted morale and ‘teaches lifetime skills’.

IMB Millsike Chair, Rebecca Major said:

“It’s a challenge to set up a new prison and even more so for Mitie who are new to prison management. The Board found that HMP Millsike was unready, understaffed and unsafe. In our view, some of the difficulties stemmed from inadequacies in Mitie’s mobilisation team. Either they underestimated the task or were not sufficiently experienced to take it on.

Since then we’ve started to see improvements, but underlying difficulties remain. Many of them stem from a chronic shortfall of officers. The site is out in the sticks, which makes both recruiting and holding on to staff difficult. Experience is everything when running a prison, and the lack of it impacts on everything – it restricts prisoner time at work or education, hampers the handling of complaints, undermines progression and resettlement, and threatens safety. Our report details a prisoner who was regularly able to self-harm despite being on constant watch.

Following the Interim Director’s arrival in February 2026, a simplified regime was introduced to get the basics working properly and provide predictability for prisoners. To do this the intake of new prisoners was paused. This should have continued until the prison is sufficiently staffed with experienced officers. However, this has not been the case and HMP Millsike is continuing to be pressed to take prisoners in line with its contract and a concerningly low level of officers. Unfortunately, the impact is already being seen on prisoners, with regime curtailments a daily occurrence – without careful cooperation between Mitie and HMPPS, HMP Millsike will revert to being the unsafe, unfair, and unhappy community we found last year.”