Source · IMB Annual Report
Pentonville
Year: 2023
Published: 26 Sep 2023
Type: Prison · Cat B, C, Local, YOI
Population: 1,140
Recommendations: 12
Key concerns
Positive findings
HMP Pentonville, a Category B local prison, faced significant challenges in 2022-2023, primarily due to overcrowding, antiquated facilities, and staff shortages impacting the regime and key work scheme. While the prison achieved notable successes in disrupting contraband and establishing a Neurodiversity Unit with positive outcomes, concerns persist regarding vulnerable prisoner safety, low time out of cell, and minimal resettlement support for its large remand population. Healthcare services showed improvements in patient access and staffing, but overall infrastructure and staffing levels continue to hinder humane conditions and effective rehabilitation.
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 1 | 3 |
| Self-harm incidents | 487 | — |
| ACCT cases opened | 650 | 650 |
| Prisoner assaults | 40 | 32 |
| Assaults on staff | 16 | 16 |
| Use of force | 798 | 646 |
Positive findings
The prison saw notable success in disrupting contraband through enhanced searching regimes and letter scanning. Improvements were made to the reception and induction process, including better cell conditions. A major new Neurodiversity Unit was established, showing improved outcomes for vulnerable prisoners, and a drug-free wing's recovery program led to successful releases. Healthcare services improved, with a new application response system and successful TB/blood-borne virus screenings. Education attendance increased, and vocational training schemes like the Employment Hub showed positive results in preparing prisoners for release.
Key concerns
Safety
Vulnerable prisoners held on the Vulnerable Prisoners Unit (VPU) were not rigorously separated from the rest of the prison population, and their safety was potentially compromised.
Safety
The referral of prisoners for a Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan (CSIP) (a tool for managing the more violent prisoners) dropped significantly this year, potentially increasing the risk of violence.
Estate/Conditions
The antiquated and fragile fabric and facilities at Pentonville have not been well managed by Gov Facility Services Limited (GFSL); this has a direct impact on every prisoner’s experience and continues to be a serious concern for the IMB.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The prison has normalised an hour out of cell per day as the regime for many, and at weekends it is even less time.
Staffing
The key work scheme, where prison officers are allocated to all prisoners to work on a one-to-one basis, has been a victim of staff shortages and the priority of security operations. It was virtually extinguished by December.
Other
Problems with prisoner property on transfer and within the prison continued, causing a huge amount of stress and frustration for prisoners and taking up a lot of staff time.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Low attendance at education and activities was a persistent problem. Only 65% of the population were engaged in an activity at the end of the year (up from 50% in July).
Resettlement/Release
Many prisoners complained to the IMB about communication with the Offender Management Unit (OMU). There was no system in place for logging applications, and a processing backlog contributed to their frustration.
Safety
the IMB remains concerned that young adults continue to be held in Pentonville at all.
Resettlement/Release
An unprecedented 75% of prisoners in Pentonville were on remand. The resettlement preparations for release of many of these prisoners is minimal. The majority were released direct from court without any release plan, after long periods waiting for their court appearance.
Overcrowding
Men were crammed, almost always in pairs, into cells measuring 12 x 8 feet, with bunk beds, a single desk and a chair and a toilet, often unscreened, inches away from where each prisoner and their cellmate ate, slept and spent much of their day. The lack of privacy alone could not be described as decent or humane.
Equality/Diversity
There was a disproportionate use of restraints on black prisoners, on Muslim prisoners and on young adults (UoF statistics, May 2022 and February 2023). It remains the IMB’s view that more research into disproportionality is necessary.
Equality/Diversity
The equality officer left at the end of February 2023, leaving no one with day-to-day oversight to the end of the reporting year. Only three Equality and Diversity meetings took place during the reporting year (when they should have been held monthly). There was a backlog of Discrimination Incident Reporting Forms at the end of the reporting year and prisoners had to wait for months to get a final reply.
Staffing
Gradual changes in the prison population meant that staffing no longer reflected the prison population and the Muslim chaplain was overstretched (another full-time Muslim chaplain could not be recruited until the completion of an MoJ benchmark exercise for chaplains).
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What measures is the Minister planning to take to reduce overcrowding in the prison system, in light of the fact that the prison estate nationally is almost at capacity and projected to increase still further before additional spaces become available under the Government’s prison building programme? | Ministry of Justice | |
| 2 | Will the Minister commit to provide more funding to HMPPS to allow for an increase in the provision of resettlement services within establishments with a high remand population, given the crucial importance of these to reducing reoffending? | Ministry of Justice | |
| 3 | Will HMPPS give assurance that the population of Pentonville will not be increased beyond the Operational Capacity of 1,205 notwithstanding increasing population pressures across the prison estate? | HMPPS | |
| 4 | When will action be taken to review the performance by GFSL of its contractual obligations? Its continued poor performance means that conditions for prisoners are neither decent nor humane, and are becoming increasingly less so every year. | HMPPS | |
| 5 | A move from full to part-time education and activities during the reporting year increased the number of spaces available to the prisoners. However, for the rest of the day they only have an hour out of cell, and those not engaged in education or activities spend 23 hours a day locked up with nothing to do. Will HMPPS commit to providing the necessary resources for the Governor to provide sufficient full-time purposeful activity spaces for the population? | HMPPS | |
| 6 | Will HMPPS commit to the expediting of the transfer of sentenced vulnerable prisoners from Pentonville to other more suitable establishments, where they can be kept safe and have access to offence-based courses? | HMPPS | |
| 7 | The new Prisoners’ Property Framework seems to have had no noticeable positive impact on the transfer of property between prisons. Will HMPPS commit to a meaningful, evidence-based review of the Framework? | HMPPS | |
| 8 | Will you commit to a detailed review of the structure of the regime in order to provide more time out of cell for those prisoners who do not attend either education or activities? | Governor / Director | |
| 9 | Will you undertake a comprehensive overhaul of property systems at Pentonville to ensure that they work effectively to enable prisoners to receive their property in a timely manner (and to avoid the unnecessary waste of staff time)? | Governor / Director | |
| 10 | Will you commit to, at a minimum, ensuring that a system is established whereby applications to the Offender Management Unit are logged electronically and an acknowledgement slip sent to prisoners, in the same way as has been done in healthcare? | Governor / Director | |
| 11 | What additional measures will you take to ensure the safety and access to activities of vulnerable prisoners who, due to a lack of space on the vulnerable prisoners’ unit, are housed separately? | Governor / Director | |
| 12 | Will you commit to renewing the focus on key work to ensure that all prisoners can benefit from the valuable personal contact that this brings? | Governor / Director |
Applications to the IMB
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (including transfers) | 45 | 38 |
| Activities/Work | 16 | 11 |
| Discipline | 23 | 20 |
| Food | 18 | 19 |
| Healthcare | 28 | 35 |
| Other | 136 | 123 |
| Property | 76 | 109 |
| Sentence management | 42 | 28 |
| Staff care and behaviour | 40 | 45 |
| Total | 538 | 524 |
| Welfare | 114 | 96 |
Related inspections & investigations
16 Mar 2026
HMIP · IRP
16 Jul 2025
HMIP · Urgent Notification
30 Jun 2025
HMIP · Unannounced
11 Apr 2023
HMIP · IRP
11 Jul 2022
HMIP · Unannounced
11 Mar 2026
PFD
Peter Campbell · This report is being sent to: HM Prison & Probation Service | Phoenix Futures | Practice Plus Group
Other reports for Pentonville
Report details
- Establishment
- Pentonville
- Type
- Prison · Cat B, C, Local, YOI
- Report year
- 2023
- Published
- 26 September 2023
- Responsible body
- HMP Pentonville
- Recommendations
- 12
- MoJ rating (2024/25)
- 1 — Serious concern
Population
| Population | 1,140 |
| Operational capacity | 1,205 |
| CNA (designed for) | 909 125% |
| Time out of cell | 1.0h/day |
Service providers
Catering
Aramark
Education
Novus
Facilities Management
GFSL (Gov Facility Services Limited)
Healthcare
Practice Plus Group
Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS)
Serco
Prisoner telephone services
BT
Substance Misuse
The Forward Trust