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Cookham Wood showing signs of improvement following turbulent 18 months

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HMYOI Cookham Wood

Cookham Wood re-rolled as an adult male category C prison in August 2024 following closure of the YOI in May 2024. An Urgent Notification issued to HMYOI Cookham Wood in April 2023 raised two important issues – the poor physical condition of the estate and a demoralised staff group. The prison’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) says in its 2024-2025 annual report, published today (4 September), that these issues have continued to impact the running of HMP Cookham Wood as an adult prison.

The IMB identified several areas for improvement:

  • Healthcare has been erratic, with the time taken for men to be seen by the right healthcare professional negatively impacting their physical and mental health.
  • The insufficient numbers of men engaging in education, work and other purposeful activity.
  • Concerns about property have been a recurring issue throughout the reporting period. Men have reported frequently that items have been lost during transfers into the prison, and the Board has seen examples of property cards arriving with few or no details recorded.

Despite these challenges, the IMB reports that Cookham Wood is showing encouraging signs of adaptation to life as an adult prison and highlights a number of positive findings:

  • Men have reported feeling safe with very little violence. Time out of cell has been good over the reporting year, averaging 5.5 hours a day.
  • Family days have been a particular highlight in greatly raising the morale of men, with staff working hard to provide a positive, welcoming environment for families.
  • Positive tests for illicit substances remained low throughout the reporting period, with occasional increases addressed quickly and effectively.

IMB Cookham Wood Chair reflects:

“With a stable population, small capacity and enviable purposeful activity facilities, Cookham Wood has considerable potential to deliver positive resettlement and rehabilitation outcomes to the men in its care. Regrettably, progress has been undermined by erratic healthcare provision while opportunities have been missed for men to engage in purposeful activity which would prepare them better for release back into the community”.