Read the report: HMP Brixton

Read the report: HMP The Mount

Inspections of two category C prisons, HMP Brixton and HMP The Mount, revealed establishments that were failing to provide the resettlement and training functions crucial to prisoners’ rehabilitation.

In a blog accompanying the reports, published today, Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, said that the findings reflected serious concerns about the lack of purposeful activity provided across the prison estate. He pointed to other category C prison inspections, including at HMP Rochester, that had identified a delay in returning to a full regime once COVID-19 restrictions had eased.

Mr Taylor said:

“In these jails we found delays in getting prisoners back into education, training and work, often created by too few activity spaces, poor allocation processes, staff shortages and a tentative approach to reopening the regime.”

Category C prisons are training and resettlement jails that hold prisoners whose escape risk is considered to be low but who cannot be trusted in open conditions. More than a third of all those in custody in England and Wales are held in such institutions, which, according to the Prison Service, should be providing prisoners with “the opportunity to develop their own skills so they can find work and resettle back into the community on release”.

Following inspections in March this year, Brixton and The Mount were judged ‘poor’, the lowest grade, in the provision of purposeful activity. The combined prison population of the jails was 1,716 at the time of our inspection, and most of these prisoners were locked up for 22 hours a day and more on weekends. A high number at both establishments were unemployed: long waiting lists and poor allocation of work were creating problems at The Mount, and there were not nearly enough activity spaces for the population at Brixton. Leaders at both jails lacked the oversight and scrutiny to address these issues, the report found.

Inspection partner Ofsted considered that overall education provision at Brixton and The Mount was ‘inadequate’. Both prisons offered too few opportunities to gain accredited qualifications, and prisoners’ learning suffered from poor attendance rates and lateness, often due to delayed unlocks. One prisoner at Brixton commented in the Inspectorate’s survey that there were “… no courses for prisoners to engage in… There is no thing for a prisoner to focus on or use as a qualification on the out.”

The Mount was judged insufficiently good in the area of respect, while Brixton was judged poor, symptomatic of a prison in serious trouble. At Brixton, overcrowding compounded the issue of lack of time out of cell. Too many prisoners shared dirty, graffitied, and poorly equipped cells designed for one, and it was often difficult for prisoners to access basics, such as toilet roll, clean bedding, and clothing. Although safety at The Mount was mostly good, violence at Brixton was on the rise, and the dangerous environment had led some prisoners to isolate themselves out of fear.

In his blog, Mr Taylor said:

“It costs taxpayers approximately £45,000 to keep someone in prison for a year. It is in all our interests that our prisons, particularly category C jails, invest more effort in giving prisoners the skills to resettle successfully when they are released.”

– End –

Notes to editors

1. Read the Brixton report, and The Mount report, published on 30 June 2022.
2. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
3. HMP Brixton opened in 1819 as the Surrey House of Correction, subsequently becoming a prison for women and then a military prison. In 1898, it became an adult male local prison, serving the whole of the London area and particularly focusing on South London. In July 2012, it became a category C and D resettlement prison and in February 2017 its role changed again to a category C resettlement prison for adult males. At the time of this inspection, the establishment held 720 prisoners
4. Situated in Bovingdon near Hemel Hempstead on the site of a former RAF station, The Mount opened in 1987 as a young offender institution and has since been converted to a category C training prison. The Mount is a category C training and resettlement prison for adult males. At the time of this inspection, the establishment held 992 prisoners.
5. Inspectors identified no examples of notable positive practice at Brixton and four examples at The Mount.
6. Both inspections took place between 14 and 21-25 March 2022.
7. Please contact Ed Owen at ed.owen1@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.