Prisoners and staff at HMP Channings Wood failed by a prison system in crisis

In its 2023-24 annual report published on 31 January 2025, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for HMP Channings Wood has yet again reported on the impact that national pressures have on the delivery of critical functions intended to reduce reoffending. Overcrowding regularly adds strain to a system already under pressure, at times preventing it from fulfilling the necessary functions of a training and resettlement prison. That staff can generally cope with a range of challenges, including a huge inflow and outflow of prisoners caused by the closure of HMP Dartmoor, is commendable.

The IMB notes that:

• Prisoners still serving the long-abolished imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences experience hopelessness, frustration and, for many, poor mental health. They face great difficulty progressing towards release and, in the Board’s opinion, a resentencing exercise, rejected by prison ministers, remains vital.
• HMPPS’ inability to deal with the repairs backlog to the ageing infrastructure (particularly to roofing, workshops and essential equipment) continues to adversely affect prisoners’ decency, access to purposeful activity and the overall operation of the prison. Managers at local level are not empowered (and often lack the resources) to deal with this.
• Missing or lost personal property, usually when it does not accompany a prisoner on transfer, has become a running sore. There seems to be neither the will nor the ability to find an effective cure.

However, despite the concerns identified in the report, the Board has observed managers and staff striving to maintain a safe environment for prisoners, especially those presenting with challenging behaviour. In a recent survey, 87% of prisoners said they felt safe all or most of the time.

IMB member, Robert Jordan, said:

“Year after year the Board has asked the same questions of ministers and the Prison Service:

• Why is the Prison Service incapable of accurately accounting for, storing and moving prisoners’ property?
• Why are managers at local level not empowered to maintain their own estate and obliged to wait years for external contractors to get on with essential maintenance?
• Why is the government prepared to tolerate legacy IPP sentences? Without providing effective support for prisoners to move towards release, it is the Board’s view that these sentences are inhumane.
• Why has so little been done to address the basic decency needs of elderly prisoners?

These questions will not be new to managers and staff at HMP Channings Wood. They know that given the right level of support and resources, prisoners could be better prepared for release and their risk of reoffending reduced. This is not a finger-pointing exercise, but if it was that finger would be pointed at a procession of prison ministers and justice secretaries who (with a very few honourable exceptions) sat on their hands and waited for the next reshuffle.”