Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, has called on the Secretary of State for Justice to intervene urgently in HMP Bristol after an inspection found the prison was suffering the effects of years of “drift and decline”.

Inspectors who visited in May and June – in the latest of four inspections since 2013 – were concerned by high violence, squalid living conditions and poor training and education.

Invoking the rarely-used Urgent Notification (UN) Protocol, Mr Clarke wrote publicly to David Gauke warning him the prison had not improved in any way since a troubling inspection in 2017, despite being placed in ‘Special Measures’ by HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). He added that he could have no confidence that HMP Bristol will achieve meaningful improvement.

The UN Protocol requires the Secretary of State to respond in public within 28 days with plans to improve a prison where Mr Clarke has significant concerns over the treatment and conditions of prisoners. UNs have previously been issued at HMPs Nottingham, Exeter, Birmingham and Bedford.

In his letter to Mr Gauke (published today, 13 June, with accompanying notes from the end-of-inspection briefing for the prison governing team) Mr Clarke wrote that the 2017 inspection showed clear evidence of declining standards, but that at the time he believed that there might be grounds for cautious optimism and a realistic prospect of improvement. The 2019 visit showed this optimism was misplaced. Some of the key findings included:

• Nearly two-thirds of prisoners said they had felt unsafe at some point during their stay at the prison, with over a third feeling unsafe at the time of the inspection.
• Recorded violence, much of it serious, had increased since the last inspection and was much higher than the average for local prisons.
• The rate of self-harm had increased and remained higher than most other local prisons. Despite the fact there had been two self-inflicted deaths since the last inspection, recommendations following investigations by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman had not been implemented. Inspectors saw examples of very poor care for prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm.
• A hotline for family and friends of prisoners in crisis, to call and report their concerns, had not been checked by staff for the two weeks before the inspection.
• Most accommodation remained bleak and grubby with too many overcrowded cells.
• There were sufficient activity places for all prisoners to engage in education, training or work for at least part of the day. However, only half of prisoners had been allocated to an activity and of these on average only about half attended.

Mr Clarke said: “The chronic and seemingly intractable failings at Bristol have now been evident for the best part of a decade.” He added that HMP Bristol “has demonstrably been in a state of drift and decline for many years.

“My understanding is that ‘Special Measures’ are intended to provide support for the Governor of a struggling prison. If that is the intention, they have clearly failed at HMP Bristol. The investment which has taken place has not yet led to any tangible improvement in outcomes. Some of the efforts to improve have – in reality – been a case of too little, too late: some we saw had only just been implemented, and some were introduced during the inspection itself. On the basis of this latest inspection, I can have no confidence that HMP Bristol will achieve coherent, meaningful or sustained improvement in the future.”

– Ends –

Notes to editors

1. Mr Clarke’s Urgent Notification letter to Mr Gauke, and accompanying notes, can be found here.
2. On 30 November 2017, Mr Clarke and David Lidington, then Justice Secretary, signed the Urgent Notification protocol – an extension of the existing working protocol between HMI Prisons and the Ministry of Justice. Mr Clarke said at the time: “The Secretary of State has accepted that he and his successors will be held publicly accountable for delivering an urgent, robust and effective response when HMI Prisons assesses that treatment or conditions in a jail raise such significant concerns that urgent action is required. The protocol requires the Secretary of State to respond to an urgent notification letter from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons within 28 days. The Chief Inspector’s notification and the Secretary of State’s response will both be published. Details of the Urgent Notification Protocol with the Ministry, most recently updated on 1 April 2019, can be found here.
3. The most recent inspection of HMP Bristol began on 20 May 2019 and ended on 7 June 2019. The inspection was unannounced.
4. The debriefing notes accompanying the Urgent Notification letter to the Secretary of State are drawn from the initial HMI Prisons findings shared with the governor of HMP Bristol. As is the case with all HMI Prisons inspections, these early findings are indicative and may be changed at the discretion of the Chief Inspector, after due consideration or following the emergence of new evidence (all HMI Prisons evidence and conclusions are subject to a rigorous fact-checking process). However, it was the view of the Chief Inspector that the initial findings at HMP Bristol were clear and concerning enough to warrant his decision to invoke the Urgent Notification Protocol.
5. Bristol is the fifth prison to trigger an Urgent Notification (UN) since the Protocol came into force on 30 November 2017. The other UNs were at HMPs Nottingham, Exeter, Birmingham and Bedford.
6. A full report on HMP Bristol will be published in due course.
7. Please contact John Steele at HM Inspectorate of Prisons press office on 020 3334 0357 or 07880 787452, or at john.steele@justice.gov.uk if you would like more information. Please note that the Ministry of Justice Newsdesk – 020 3334 3536 – will be able to provide a response.