HMP Wandsworth shows progress under new leadership despite ongoing challenges

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at HMP Wandsworth is pleased to note in its 2024-25 annual report (published 10 October 2025), that positive new leadership and a sense of strategic direction has enabled the prison to begin to address long-term problems. However, the report also highlights two persistent challenges:

• Staffing was a recurrent problem, and levels of staff absence were unacceptably high, with an average of one third of staff absent every day. This had an adverse effect on regime delivery with frequent and disruptive lockdowns, with prisoners often spending 22 hours a day locked in their cells. Staff recruitment is managed centrally and has delivered inadequately trained staff, many unsuited to working in a prison.

• The crumbling infrastructure of the 170-year-old building unsurprisingly meant living conditions remained inhumane and unacceptable, with the majority of prisoners sharing cells originally built for one. Cells were cramped and insanitary and many of the showers were mouldy and unhygienic. Frequent boiler breakdowns during the winter meant that cells were often bitterly cold.

IMB Chair, Matthew Andrews said:

“The improvement in the prison’s performance after the disastrous situation last year is welcomed and has been reflected in the largely positive conclusions of HMIP’s Independent Review of Progress, conducted in April. However, until the serious staffing issues are properly addressed the prison’s efforts to improve further will be severely hampered.”