Source · IMB Annual Report

Durham

Year: 2023 Published: 13 Mar 2024 Type: Prison · Cat Reception and Resettlement Prison Population: 981 Recommendations: 20 Key concerns Positive findings

HMP Durham, a Reception and Resettlement Prison for adult and young adult men, holds a significant population of unsentenced prisoners (75.6%). The past year has seen a notable increase in self-harm incidents (596) and total assaults (340), including those on staff (77), alongside 8 deaths in custody. Despite these challenges, 92% of prisoners report feeling safe, and the Board commends staff de-escalation techniques and efforts to reduce illicit item supply.

Safety statistics

Incidents during reporting year
IndicatorThis yearPrevious
Deaths in custody83
Self-harm incidents596486
ACCT cases opened1,0831,048
Prisoner assaults263225
Assaults on staff7755

Positive findings

The Board believes HMP Durham has maintained safety as a key priority, a view supported by 92% of prisoners. Improvements have been noted in the induction process, and staff consistently impress with their de-escalation techniques and the use of body worn video cameras. The prison is proactive in minimising drug supply. Positive support for prisoners and their families is provided by NEPACS, and the kitchens offer an excellent service. Relations between staff and prisoners are generally good, and significant improvements have been made in prisoner consultation through focus groups, ensuring satisfactory treatment for transgender, non-binary, and gender-fluid prisoners. The Chaplaincy provides outstanding support for foreign national prisoners, and healthcare staff are highly praised when present. The ISU offers good support for patients, and the DART team has provided valuable interventions despite staffing issues, leading to a reduction in healthcare complaints. The library staff and Offender Management Unit are also commended for their hard work and implementation of best practices.

Key concerns

19 items
Overcrowding Repeated The Board has raised, annually, concerns about the levels of overcrowding and its impact on the dignity of prisoners, but we have received answers offering no hope of improvement. This reporting year, the situation is further exacerbated by the necessity of mixing vulnerable and Mains prisoners on the same wing, due to overcrowding on the vulnerable prisoners’ wing. How does the Minister intend to restore dignity to prisoners and ensure the safety of both vulnerable and Mains prisoners?
Resettlement/Release What plans does the Minister have to make tangible and rapid improvements in the availability of accommodation for the planned release of prisoners leaving prison?
Resettlement/Release What plans does the Minister have to support issues that are faced by HMP Durham in the availability of accommodation for the unplanned releases from the courts?
Safety Prisoners arriving late in the day, en masse, present major issues in processing through reception and often results in healthcare assessments not being carried out. The Board sees this as a major risk. What can be done to smooth out the arrival of prisoners to HMP Durham?
Estate/Conditions Repeated Last reporting year, the Board raised the issue of A wing refurbishment, a project initiated at the beginning of November 2022 and still live today. What does the Prison Service intend to do to speedily improve the fabric of A wing and generally improve accommodation across the wing?
Equality/Diversity What plans does the Prison Service have to improve the number of accessible cells for ageing or disabled prisoners?
Staffing Why are vetting processes taking so long? The delay has resulted in some successful candidates for healthcare positions taking other posts whilst awaiting clearance.
Staffing How does the Prison Service hold to account contractors for education, healthcare, mental health services and drug-treatment support to ensure they have sufficient staff to deliver the contract?
Other What penalties have been imposed when third-party providers have failed to meet their contractual commitments?
Healthcare Repeated How will you ensure that all prisoners arriving at reception receive screening by healthcare staff before being moved to the first night centre?
Segregation Repeated What do you intend to do to improve the induction process for prisoners located in the segregation unit (SACU) who have failed the body scanner search in reception?
Healthcare How will you ensure that all healthcare staff in reception have access to SASH (suicide and self-harm) and PER (person escort record) documents?
Safety Repeated How will you reduce the level of open and post ACCT documents that present with omissions/administrative errors?
Safety How will you ensure there are sufficient trained ‘Listeners’ in, and distributed across, the prison, and that they are given access to prisoners requesting support?
Estate/Conditions How will you ensure that cells are adequately furnished and that new receptions have access to bedding and clothing?
Staffing How will you ensure there are sufficient staff in the prison to maintain the regime and ensure wings such as SACU and I wing are not placed in patrol state because of staff shortages?
Healthcare What plans will be put in place to achieve an improved and sustained delivery of “secondary health screening within 7 days”?
Healthcare What plans will be implemented to reduce the level of "did not attend" for healthcare appointments?
Regime/Time Out of Cell There has been a continued issue throughout the year of wing staff allocating work to prisoners before final approval has been given. How will you stop this?

Recommendations

20 items · 5 repeated
#RecommendationAddresseeStatus
1 The Board has raised, annually, concerns about the levels of overcrowding and its impact on the dignity of prisoners, but we have received answers offering no hope of improvement. This reporting year, the situation is further exacerbated by the necessity of mixing vulnerable and Mains prisoners on the same wing, due to overcrowding on the vulnerable prisoners’ wing. How does the Minister intend to restore dignity to prisoners and ensure the safety of both vulnerable and Mains prisoners? (4.1.7/5.1.1) Repeated
Response
Although not desirable, accommodating two prisoners in a cell designed for one remains necessary in order to accommodate all in custody until the prison population growth slows. There are no current plans to alter the prisons operational capacity to facilitate maintenance projects. In respect of CSRA (cell sharing risk assessment), HMP Durham fully applies the appropriate policy.
Ministry of Justice
2 What plans does the Minister have to make tangible and rapid improvements in the availability of accommodation for the planned release of prisoners leaving prison? (7.5.3) Ministry of Justice
3 What plans does the Minister have to support issues that are faced by HMP Durham in the availability of accommodation for the unplanned releases from the courts? (7.5.3) Ministry of Justice
4 Prisoners arriving late in the day, en masse, present major issues in processing through reception and often results in healthcare assessments not being carried out. The Board sees this as a major risk. What can be done to smooth out the arrival of prisoners to HMP Durham? (4.1.2/6.2.2) HMPPS
5 Last reporting year, the Board raised the issue of A wing refurbishment, a project initiated at the beginning of November 2022 and still live today. What does the Prison Service intend to do to speedily improve the fabric of A wing and generally improve accommodation across the wing? (5.1.4) Repeated
Response
There are no plans to reduce the population of HMP Durham to allow refurbishment.
HMPPS
6 What plans does the Prison Service have to improve the number of accessible cells for ageing or disabled prisoners? (5.1.6) HMPPS
7 The Board understands that within the soon-to-be-implemented “Joint Care & Separation Units Standard Framework”, it is not mandatory for the prison to evidence compliance with the six principles of the framework. Why? (5.2.9) HMPPS
8 Why are vetting processes taking so long? The delay has resulted in some successful candidates for healthcare positions taking other posts whilst awaiting clearance. (6.1.2) HMPPS
9 How does the Prison Service hold to account contractors for education, healthcare, mental health services and drug-treatment support to ensure they have sufficient staff to deliver the contract? (6.1.2/6.3.2/6.6.1/7.1.4) HMPPS
10 What penalties have been imposed when third-party providers have failed to meet their contractual commitments? (6.1.2/6.3.2/6.6.1/7.1.4) HMPPS
11 How will you ensure that all prisoners arriving at reception receive screening by healthcare staff before being moved to the first night centre? (4.1.2/6.2.2) Repeated
Response
Data will be reported and scrutinised daily with regards to the number of prisoners requiring and receiving first night health screening. This will be reported at the daily morning briefing and any gaps will be looked into to gain an understanding of what has happened to delay the process and to ensure this is then immediately followed up. The prison will trial a twilight shift which will allow greater time for the completion of some tasks in the reception area on a busy evening and support staff staying later in the prison to deliver key tasks such as enabling the healthcare team to deliver first night screening. The Governor will meet monthly with the Director of Operations for Spectrum to review progress against key deliverables, discuss and resolve enabling issues, and appropriately challenge performance gaps. The Governor will meet quarterly with the health commissioner to review areas of good practice and issues in relation to the delivery of health. This meeting will support the ability to directly challenge contractual issues which impact on the delivery of care to prisoners. The Governor will chair the local Health Delivery Board, where an amended agenda will encourage the open and transparent sharing of performance data from prison and health services and enable delivery issues to be resolved.
Governor / Director
12 What do you intend to do to improve the induction process for prisoners located in the segregation unit (SACU) who have failed the body scanner search in reception? (4.1.6) Repeated
Response
This will be managed via a number of measures including: Data will be reported and scrutinised daily with regards to the number of prisoners requiring and receiving inductions. This will be reported at the daily morning briefing and any gaps will be looked into to gain an understanding of what has happened to delay the process and to ensure this is then immediately followed up. The secreted items policy is updated to reflect the requirement for an initial induction. A B4 supervising officer will be allocated to and deployed to manage the segregation unit on a daily basis, drawing this resource from elsewhere in the residential profiles and providing a more consistent managerial presence which will support assurance processes. The prison will trial a twilight shift which will allow greater time for the completion of some tasks in the reception area on a busy evening and support staff staying later in the prison to deliver key tasks such as the initial induction/first night information.
Governor / Director
13 How will you ensure that all healthcare staff in reception have access to SASH (suicide and self-harm) and PER (person escort record) documents? (4.2.4) Governor / Director
14 How will you reduce the level of open and post ACCT documents that present with omissions/administrative errors? (4.2.8) Repeated
Response
We will seek direct support in the training of B4 case co-ordinators for HMP Durham from the National Safety Team. We will provide local support and guidance to managers to enable awareness of requirements to review ACCT documents and sign when completed. We will identify a B4 supervising officer role to undertake ACCT QA checks in healthcare. We will ring fence the safety team as far as is possible to enable more time for assurance. The Governor will review the staffing of the safety team, placing a non-operational colleague into the role of Head of Safety will prevent loss of hours to duty governor roles, and allow greater focus on safety as a whole. In addition, replacing the analyst role with a hub manager, will increase the scope of work that can be completed in this area and free up the time of the officer group to deliver face to face contact with prisoners. We will maintain staffing levels in the B4 supervising officer group to support delivery of tasks.
Governor / Director
15 How will you ensure there are sufficient trained ‘Listeners’ in, and distributed across, the prison, and that they are given access to prisoners requesting support? (4.2.13) Governor / Director
16 How will you ensure that cells are adequately furnished and that new receptions have access to bedding and clothing? (5.1.8 - 5.1.11) Governor / Director
17 How will you ensure there are sufficient staff in the prison to maintain the regime and ensure wings such as SACU and I wing are not placed in patrol state because of staff shortages? (5.2.4/6.3.14/6.5.3) Governor / Director
18 What plans will be put in place to achieve an improved and sustained delivery of “secondary health screening within 7 days”? (6.2.3) Governor / Director
19 What plans will be implemented to reduce the level of "did not attend" for healthcare appointments? (6.2.6) Governor / Director
20 There has been a continued issue throughout the year of wing staff allocating work to prisoners before final approval has been given. How will you stop this? (7.2.5) Governor / Director

Related inspections & investigations

30 Apr 2024 HMIP · Unannounced Safety 2 · Respect 2 · Activity 1 · Release 3
PPO fatal incident Robert Barry · Natural causes
PPO fatal incident Eric Carr
PPO fatal incident Richard While · Self-inflicted
PPO fatal incident Brian Tait · Other non-natural
PPO fatal incident Colin Storr · Self-inflicted
21 Sep 2021 PFD Charlie Todd · State Custody related deaths | Suicide (from 2015)
14 Feb 2019 PFD Matthew Hamilton · Alcohol, drug and medication related deaths; State Custody related deaths
15 Dec 2015 PFD Derek Thomas · State Custody related deaths
22 Jul 2014 PFD Edward Devlin · State Custody related deaths

Other reports for Durham

2025 Published 20 Mar 2026 Population 961 · Self-harm 461 · Concerns
2024 Published 10 Apr 2025 Population 974 · Self-harm 798 · Concerns
2022 Published 31 Mar 2023 Population 976 · Self-harm 486 · Concerns
2021 Published 24 Mar 2022 Population 974 · Self-harm 589 · Concerns
2020 Published 24 Mar 2021 · Self-harm 522 · Concerns

Report details

Establishment
Durham
Type
Prison · Cat Reception and Resettlement Prison
Report year
2023
Published
13 March 2024
Responsible body
HMP Durham
Recommendations
20
MoJ rating (2024/25)
1 — Serious concern

Population

Population981
Operational capacity985
CNA (designed for)596 165%

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