Source · IMB Annual Report
Chelmsford
Year: 2022
Published: 7 Feb 2023
Type: Prison · Cat B local
Recommendations: 10
Key concerns
Positive findings
HMP Chelmsford, a category B local prison, showed mixed performance in the reporting year ending August 2022. While levels of violence and self-harm decreased, and there were no deaths in custody, significant concerns persist regarding overcrowding (49% of prisoners sharing single cells) and long-standing issues with lost prisoner property. Staff shortages heavily impacted healthcare appointments, purposeful activity, and key worker effectiveness, contributing to many prisoners spending extended periods locked in cells.
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 0 | — |
| Self-harm incidents | 836 | 740 |
| ACCT cases opened | 888 | — |
| Prisoner assaults | 241 | 259 |
| Assaults on staff | 177 | 246 |
| Use of force | 661 | 787 |
Positive findings
The Board notes a general improvement in safety, with reduced violence, self-harm, and no deaths in custody. Drug supply was reduced, and the prison environment is significantly cleaner and better maintained. Staff-prisoner interactions are generally positive, and the new healthcare manager is engaging well with the IMB. The prison offers good gym facilities, vocational training, and various work opportunities, with the chaplaincy providing extensive support and successfully restarting corporate worship post-Covid.
Key concerns
Overcrowding
Repeated
Overcrowding is still a major issue: 49% of the prisoners live two to a cell in cells designed for single occupancy.
Other
Repeated
The Board still received a significant number of applications about property, in total more than any other issue – some 21% of the total – and that our concerns voiced over many years have yielded few if any results.
Safety
The actual number of self-harm incidents remained high, with 836 cases (to end July 2022), which was 13% higher than the previous year.
Safety
Violence remains high and the prison had not yet offered as much time out of cell as the pre-Covid-19 era.
Healthcare
Appointments for dentistry, GPs, physiotherapy etc are frequently missed due to a shortage of escorting officers.
Equality/Diversity
The increasing numbers of prisoners who use wheelchairs still face difficulties in accessing certain areas of the prison due to the only lift in healthcare being non-operational for over four months.
Education/Purposeful Activity
There were places for only two-thirds of prisoners to participate in education, skills, and work, and too many were unfilled due to staff shortages and a consequential lack of escorting officers.
Staffing
The Key Worker compliance rate averaged only 3% during the year due to low staffing levels.
Equality/Diversity
A higher percentage of searches are being carried out on Black, Asian and minority ethnic prisoners than is justified by their percentage share of the population of the prison.
Complaints/Property
On average 20% of COMP1s were not answered on time in the months January – July 2022.
Substance Misuse
Whilst the prison has been successful in driving down the availability of illicit drugs, this led to prisoners focusing on hooch.
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To ensure adequate funding for the ongoing improvement of the prison’s buildings and facilities. | Ministry of Justice | |
| 2 | To exert influence to ensure provision of suitable permanent accommodation for prisoners upon release, so that no prisoner ends up on the street. | Ministry of Justice | |
| 3 | To look at simplifying the process of recruiting IMB members. Currently this process is, at best, difficult, at worst, onerous. Too much is being demanded of people applying for a voluntary role and we urge the Minister to support efforts to find a better way. | Ministry of Justice | |
| 4 | To continue to support the Governor and staff in making the changes and improvements highlighted by the HMIP inspection in August 2021, and those noted by us. | HMPPS | |
| 5 | We would welcome a decrease in the OpCap and additional staffing during the transitional period to ensure that ‘business as usual’ is not adversely affected by a concentration of effort on improvements. | HMPPS | |
| 6 | To make every effort to eliminate overcrowding, which is in conflict with the requirements of decency and respect and is in contravention of the United Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. | HMPPS | |
| 7 | To continue to reduce the levels of violence, self-harm, bullying, drug use and drug smuggling. | Governor / Director | |
| 8 | To institute processes to encourage prisoners to attend purposeful activity, so that they get the maximum opportunity to make themselves employable upon release. | Governor / Director | |
| 9 | To ensure that offender supervisors and key workers are given the time to perform their vital role, rather than being allocated to other duties at a moment’s notice. | Governor / Director | |
| 10 | To look at simplifying the process of recruiting IMB members. Currently this process is, at best, difficult, at worst, onerous. Too much is demanded of people applying for a voluntary role and we urge the Secretariat to discuss with BDOs and make recommendations to the Minister. | Other |
Applications to the IMB
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation, including laundry, clothing, ablutions | 11 | 5 |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogue(s) | 15 | 6 |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives schemes, sanctions | 12 | 6 |
| Equality | 6 | 5 |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 7 | 5 |
| Food and kitchens | 6 | 6 |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 34 | 30 |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection restrictions | 20 | 17 |
| Miscellaneous, including complaints system | 16 | 8 |
| Property during transfer or in another establishment or location | 17 | 13 |
| Property within this establishment | 31 | 36 |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, library, regime, time out of cell | 17 | 2 |
| Sentence management, including HDC, release on temporary licence, parole, release dates, re-categorisation | 7 | 7 |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 21 | 19 |
| Transfers | 14 | 2 |
Related inspections & investigations
22 Jan 2024
HMIP · Unannounced
Safety 2
· Respect 2
· Activity 2
· Release 2
Other reports for Chelmsford
Report details
- Establishment
- Chelmsford
- Type
- Prison · Cat B local
- Report year
- 2022
- Published
- 7 February 2023
- Responsible body
- HMP Chelmsford
- Recommendations
- 10
- MoJ rating (2024/25)
- 1 — Serious concern
Population
| Operational capacity | 695 |
Service providers
Education
PeoplePlus
Facilities Management
GFSL (Government Facility Services Limited)
Healthcare
Castle Rock Group (CRG)
Listener Scheme Support
Samaritans
Prisoner Escort
Serco
Substance Misuse
Forward Trust
Visitors Centre Support
Ormiston