Source · IMB Annual Report
Wandsworth
Year: 2023
Published: 11 Oct 2023
Type: Prison · Cat reception, Cat C
Population: 1,584
Recommendations: 11
Key concerns
Positive findings
HMP Wandsworth faced severe challenges in the reporting year, marked by chronic staff shortages leading to a limited and inconsistent regime. The prison recorded significant increases in assaults, self-harm, and ACCT cases, underscoring serious safety concerns exacerbated by easy access to contraband. Inhumane living conditions, including overcrowding, poor heating, and inadequate healthcare facilities (with a new centre remaining unopened), persisted, while vital services like library access and resettlement support were also hampered by understaffing.
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 4 | 6 |
| Self-harm incidents | 886 | 801 |
| ACCT cases opened | 1,041 | 810 |
| Prisoner assaults | 524 | 434 |
| Assaults on staff | 524 | 408 |
| Use of force | 2,227 | 1,497 |
| Drug finds | 210 | — |
Positive findings
The management team worked hard despite limited resources. The Board noted sympathetic management of ACCT reviews and improved use of force reporting. Significant contraband seizures were made, and an incentivised substance-free unit was successfully established. Food provision was good with few complaints, and property distribution improved. The compassion of CSU staff and the work of BEST for foreign nationals were commended. Efforts in education, vocational training, and resettlement support through the Accelerator pilot and employment hub showed positive outcomes for prisoners.
Key concerns
Staffing
Repeated
The shortage of available staff seriously undermined the ability of the prison to function effectively. The percentage of unavailable officers rarely dipped below 50% during the period.
Safety
Repeated
The prison was not safe. The number of assaults rose by 25% over the reporting period to 1,048. On average there were over 10 assaults on staff per week. This was reflected in a 49% rise in the use of force.
Safety
Repeated
Access to contraband through a variety of methods, including drones, continued to appear easy; cell searches realised 330 mobile phones and 1,900 litres of illicitly brewed alcohol.
Mental Health
The number of assessment care in custody and teamwork (ACCT) reviews opened rose by 29% in the period to 1,041.
Overcrowding
Repeated
The prison remains seriously overcrowded with most men sharing cells designed for single occupancy.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
The prison repeatedly had no heating or hot water during the winter months.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
In G and H wing there were only 11 shower stalls for 265 men, who all wanted showers in the very limited time available to them.
Healthcare
Repeated
The new multi-million pound healthcare centre remained unused, over one year after its scheduled opening date.
Healthcare
Repeated
The Addison and Jones units house some of the most vulnerable men in the prison. The state of their environment is unhygienic, dangerous and detrimental to their care and rehabilitation.
Healthcare
There were 88 recorded incidents in the first 10 months of the reporting period of critical medications not being administered.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Repeated
The library was open throughout the period but men were rarely brought to it. The opportunity for men to have their regulation 30 minutes per week in the library was largely ignored.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
Remand prisoners still received no housing support and this increased their vulnerability and risk of reoffending on release.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
Home Office Immigration services were affected by staff shortages throughout the reporting period; there was no consistent pattern of when Immigration staff would be visiting the wings, and no clear information on when a FN prisoner could expect an interview. This caused considerable and unacceptable delays leading to frustration for prisoners and in some cases led to self-harm.
Staffing
The work of the resettlement team was adversely affected by chronic understaffing, down to two members out of 12 at the end of the reporting period.
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
With the establishment dangerously overcrowded and living conditions inhumane what immediate term actions will the Minister authorise to redress the shortage of resources – human, financial and physical?
Repeated
Response
No improvement, HMP Wandsworth remains chronically overcrowded |
Ministry of Justice | |
| 1 |
The new multi-million pound healthcare centre has still not opened over one year after its original scheduled opening date. Prisoners have therefore been deprived of the benefit it would have brought. When will the centre open?
Repeated
Response
The new healthcare building continues to be fraught with delays, design errors and logistical problems. As a result, the building has not yet been opened. The loss to prisoners and taxpayers continues. |
HMPPS | |
| 1 | How do you propose reducing the disproportionately high number of assaults committed by the 18-25 cohort? | Governor / Director | |
| 2 |
HMP Wandsworth is a reception establishment yet housing services are only offered to sentenced prisoners. When will these services be extended to unsentenced prisoners?
Repeated
Response
The Minister is misinformed, unfortunately remand prisoners still receive no housing support. |
Ministry of Justice | |
| 2 |
Men have endured another year of inadequate shower facilities coupled with numerous boiler failures resulting in periods of no hot water or heating. When will the old and inadequate heating and water systems be replaced with modern, efficient equipment?
Repeated
Response
While the showers have been refurbished there were simply not enough of them. G wing had showers on G1 and G2; on one landing only two were working, on the other only three. This meant that 125 men had to shower during their one hour of social and domestic time, when they had to do everything else as well. H wing was no better, it had one set of showers with six stalls for 140 men to be shared within the same daily one hour time frame. Officers remarked that if men did not queue then they missed their slot, and if they did queue then they missed the opportunity to do anything else. |
HMPPS | |
| 2 | When will the prison take seriously its obligation to provide regular access to the library? Repeated | Governor / Director | |
| 3 |
Is there a prison building programme to alleviate chronic overcrowding as well as providing spaces for the anticipated rise in prisoner numbers?
Repeated
Response
HMP Wandsworth is yet to see the benefit of this investment. |
Ministry of Justice | |
| 3 | Staff recruitment is managed centrally. Would the Service consider involving HMP Wandsworth in the process to ensure that suitable staff are selected and given a realistic understanding of the role, thus reducing staff turnover? Repeated | HMPPS | |
| 3 | Non delivery of medications has been a major concern to the Board this year. What is being done to ensure that this improves? | Governor / Director | |
| 4 | What plans are there to provide meaningful activity to remand prisoners, given that their stay is often lengthy? | HMPPS | |
| 4 | With the current staff shortages, will it be possible to operate the new healthcare centre safely? | Governor / Director |
Applications to the IMB
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation | 114 | 66 |
| Canteen | 22 | 20 |
| Discipline | 33 | 21 |
| Equality and diversity (inc religion) | 47 | 31 |
| Family/visits (inc mail and phone) | 69 | 38 |
| Finance/pay | 29 | 24 |
| Food/kitchen | 10 | 7 |
| Health | 119 | 59 |
| Miscellaneous | 14 | 31 |
| Property (external) | 38 | 19 |
| Property (within current establishment) | 74 | 35 |
| Purposeful activity | 56 | 26 |
| Sentence related | 72 | 64 |
| Staff/prisoner concerns | 71 | 52 |
| Transfers | 28 | 42 |
Related inspections & investigations
31 Mar 2025
HMIP · IRP
8 May 2024
HMIP · Urgent Notification
22 Apr 2024
HMIP · Unannounced
Safety 1
· Respect 1
· Activity 1
· Release 2
Other reports for Wandsworth
Report details
- Establishment
- Wandsworth
- Type
- Prison · Cat reception, Cat C
- Report year
- 2023
- Published
- 11 October 2023
- Responsible body
- HMP Wandsworth
- Recommendations
- 11
- MoJ rating (2024/25)
- 1 — Serious concern
Population
| Population | 1,584 |
| Operational capacity | 1,655 |
| CNA (designed for) | 961 165% |
| Time out of cell | 1.8h/day |
Service providers
Canteen
DHL
Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
Change Grow Live (CGL)
Facilities Management
Gov Facilities Services Limited (GFSL)
Foreign National Support
Catch 22
Healthcare
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust