Recommendation 1
The IMB would recommend that the volume and tone of the communication, at this confusing period in a prisoner’s life, when he is only hours after his reception, be reviewed for content, necessity, and a more positive tone.
Source · IMB Annual Report
Wayland
AI-generated report summary This report on HMP Wayland, based on a prisoner attitudes survey ending March 2023, highlights significant concerns across various aspects of prison life. Key issues include ineffective induction, poor staff-prisoner trust and communication, and a failure of the key worker scheme. Prisoners report feeling unsafe, lacking support for resettlement, and facing challenges with property, healthcare access, and the complaints system, alongside issues in education provision. The Board emphasizes a general lack of curiosity from management regarding these persistent problems, underscoring the need for fundamental improvements.
Year: 2023
Published: 19 Dec 2023
Type: Prison · Cat C
Recommendations: 15
Key concerns
Positive findings
Positive findings
AI-generated summaryThe Board welcomes the recent revamp of the Induction period, providing an opportunity to create a more positive initial experience for prisoners. There has been a continued emphasis on basic decency, with a welcome improvement in equipping cells with furniture (up from 51% to 71%) and easier access to cleaning materials. The reported feeling of loneliness has reduced from 78% in 2022 to 66% in 2023, and visits have significantly increased from 48% to 70%, with the Family Development team likely contributing to this success.
Key concerns
Poor induction experience, with two-thirds of prisoners finding it unhelpful.
Source wording under review
The experience of Induction, the responses are in the negative, depressingly so for two-thirds of prisoners received into Wayland each year.
Source wording under review
Lack of effective communication regarding the regime and future changes.
Source wording under review
The 2023 negative response regarding the prison communicating well regarding regime and what will happen in future has increased to 69%.
Source wording under review
Low staff-prisoner trust (57% do not trust staff) stemming from broken promises, poor attitudes, and perceived unfairness.
Source wording under review
Only 40% (2023) responded that the staff were able to help with personal problems on arrival.
Source wording under review
Despite this maintenance of the idea of key working, the current practice does not provide the opportunities for serious rehabilitative work with prisoners at which the policy is aimed.
Almost two thirds of prisoners did NOT believe their cell was as clean as they had expected a prison cell to be (61% negative).
Source wording under review
Persistent feelings of unsafety among prisoners (21% currently feel unsafe).
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Almost half the respondents in 2023 (43%) said their washbasin/shower/toilet in their cell was NOT clean, with some uncleanliness appearing longstanding.
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Profound lack of trust among prisoners themselves (68% trust none or very few others).
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A full third of prisoners still claim that it is not easy to get cleaning materials.
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Near-zero perceived staff help with personal problems about life after release (only 4% feel helped).
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Three-quarters of respondents (75%) said they had NOT signed a cell acceptance form, a finding consistently reported since 2019.
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Significant damage to life chances for prisoners due to missed education and programs during Covid-restricted regimes.
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23% of prisoners claim that they do not get clean bedding weekly, despite previous assurances that the system for requesting it was improved.
Source wording under review
Worsening property handling, with two-thirds of property still missing after reception.
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A significant number of respondents have consistently reported feeling lonely in Wayland (66% in 2023).
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Declining ease of making healthcare appointments and high dissatisfaction (two-thirds) with healthcare complaint outcomes.
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Unfortunately, only 18% of prisoners who admitted they were lonely reported that staff were able to help, which leaves 82% who made such an important, and unforced, admission feeling let down and likely to base their future views of staff on that basis.
Perceived unfairness in the formal complaints (Comp 1/1A) system (75% find it unfair).
Source wording under review
The split between respondents who trusted staff against those who did not has remained astonishingly stable at roughly 45%/55% (43% Yes, 57% No in 2023) over four years, indicating a persistent lack of trust.
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Poor system for managing and returning educational materials with feedback.
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Key working has neither been consistently resourced nor managed, with marginal impact on prisoners. Two-thirds (65%) said their key worker had never spoken with them, and 48% reported never speaking with their key worker.
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Insufficient library book provision and lack of digitisation.
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The figure claiming not to have felt safe on arrival or after is stable at between 21% and 22%.
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Lack of curiosity from management about prisoner feedback and experiences.
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In 2023, the figure for prisoners reporting they could trust no, or at most one or two, other prisoners had grown to 68% (from 56% in 2022).
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Only 4% of prisoners thought that staff were helping with personal problems likely on release, while 96% said they had not, described as the 'worst sort of result there could be for a prison which is meant to be a training and resettlement prison'.
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59% of prisoners reported having missed out on programs required by their release plan or for their parole case.
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56% of prisoners believe that a lack of education during lockdown will affect their life chances after release.
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Two-thirds (67%) of prisoners said all their property had not been received within two weeks of reception, and 66% reported it was still missing at the time of the survey. Property issues continue to be the leading subject for IMB applications.
Source wording under review
Nevertheless, an average drop of seven percentage points from an already low proportion who found making contact easy - 21.5% in 2023, down from 28.75% in 2022 - is a disappointment.
We asked in Q 9 how satisfied prisoners were about complaints they had made to healthcare. On this, the dial has not shifted at all from 2022, when two-thirds of prisoners expressed dissatisfaction with their complaint results.
The perceived fairness in the Comp 1 and 1A system is stark, with 75% of prisoners reporting it as unfair (25% fair). The Board frequently finds responses to complaints to be limited, unhelpful, and sometimes unacceptable.
Source wording under review
The perceived utility of Prisoner Forums has dropped steadily over the last three years, from 68% in 2021 to 32% in 2023.
Source wording under review
Only 32% of prisoners said they had had a response to returned education materials after cell work, a drop from 44% in 2022 and 43% in 2021.
Source wording under review
50% of prisoners said they could not get educational materials when educational attendance was not possible.
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The availability of library books worsened, with 55% of prisoners reporting not having sufficient library books in 2023, a reversal from 45% in 2022, despite the Board consistently calling for improvement and digitisation.
Source wording under review
Prisoners mention '22 hour bang up everyday' and '23 hours a day' as part of the regime.
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Prisoners comment on staff attitudes including 'very bad attitudes', 'corruption', 'all lie they don’t like Pakistanis', 'lazy', and 'lack of respect'.
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A prisoner notes: 'The all lie they don’t like Pakistanis'.
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A prisoner suggests stopping 'drugs from coming into prison this would keep inmates from fighting and make this place a safe place to be in'.
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Prisoners complain about the canteen ('More option on Canteen') and food quality ('Better food').
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OMU (Offender Management Unit) is described as 'terrible. No objectivity. Poor training, no cover for sickness or absence.' and 'Not fit for purpose!'
Source wording under review
Recommendations
Recommendation 2
The IMB suspects that this important contingent of a prisoner’s social life, and therefore his social health, is not given the attention it needs and would recommend that prison management review the issue to examine other prisons’ experiences and, possibly, knowledge of how to address this issue successfully.
Recommendation 3
We recommend that this issue [lesser immediacy of communication need as perceived by the prison’s management after Covid] is at least considered for review.
Recommendation 4
The Board sees no alternative to a continuing programme of staff training and supervision [for key working], and, of course, staff doing the supervising must not only had that training themselves but also the experience that goes with it.
Recommendation 5
The IMB would recommend that the volume and tone of the communication, at this confusing period in a prisoner’s life, when he is only hours after his reception, be reviewed for content, necessity, and a more positive tone.
Recommendation 6
We urge the Healthcare Contractor to consider these findings and review their contact management systems.
Recommendation 7
The IMB would recommend that prison management review the issue [loneliness] to examine other prisons’ experiences and, possibly, knowledge of how to address this issue successfully.
Recommendation 8
We urge the healthcare contractor to consider how this situation [dissatisfaction with healthcare complaint outcomes] can be improved.
Recommendation 9
We urge the Healthcare Contractor to consider these findings [ease of making appointments] and review their contact management systems.
Recommendation 10
We now ask, however, for prison management to take note of these findings and seek to ensure that the outcome for prisoners involved in the complaints process is at least improved in regard to the precepts of procedural justice, and also, perhaps, seek to provide opportunity to discuss the felt-fairness of complaint responses with prisoners as part of key working.
Recommendation 11
We urge the healthcare contractor to consider how this situation [dissatisfaction with complaint results] can be improved.
Recommendation 12
Perhaps, considering how much digital communication is now relied upon, prison management should seek to discover why there has been this significant reduction [in perceived utility of Prisoner Forums].
Recommendation 13
We now ask, however, for prison management to take note of these findings [complaints system fairness] and seek to ensure that the outcome for prisoners involved in the complaints process is at least improved in regard to the precepts of procedural justice, and also, perhaps, seek to provide opportunity to discuss the felt-fairness of complaint responses with prisoners as part of key working.
Recommendation 14
only a full digitisation of the library catalogue will provide the sort of comparable access as is available in the wider community.
Recommendation 15
Prison management should seek to discover why there has been this significant reduction [in the perceived utility of Prisoner Forums].
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