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Independent Monitoring Boards annual report

Stocken

Report year 2022 Published 15 Nov 2022 Type Prison, category C Population 1,019 Responsible body HMP Stocken 9 recommendations

Original IMB report page ↗ Ministerial response, 4 Jan 2023 ↗ imb.org.uk ↗

The summary and positive findings below were written from the report by an AI model. The Board's own wording is in the report linked above.

Summary

Summary written by this site (AI-generated)
HMP Stocken generally provides a safe and humane environment, with strong efforts in safer custody and no deaths in custody this year. However, the Board highlights significant challenges including chronic understaffing across various departments, persistent delays in staff vetting, and a critical shortage of secure mental health provision, leading to unsuitable placements within the prison. Issues with prisoner transfers, including incomplete assessments and uncontrolled property, and a lack of category D prison places continue to hinder progression and resettlement efforts. The performance of the education provider is also a key concern.

Positive findings

Summary written by this site (AI-generated)
The Board finds HMP Stocken to be a safe environment, where prisoners are generally treated fairly and humanely, and physical health needs are well catered for. The safer custody team's commitment was recognised in a recent audit, and the reception process continues to work effectively. There were no deaths in custody this year, and a STARS course for self-harmers showed positive results with a significant reduction in incidents. The introduction of in-cell telephony has been a major step forward, and the 50/50 regime is working well for both staff and prisoners. The mental health team's morale has improved, leading to better waiting times, and a recent refurbishment of the visits hall has created a more relaxed environment.

Recommendations

All 9 recommendations

Key concerns

All 13 key concerns

Recommendations 9 items · 3 repeated

Recommendations were extracted from the report by AI, and responses and their status from the ministerial response by AI. Each recommendation shows whether its wording has been checked against the report.

Recommendation 1

Addressee: Ministry of Justice · Topic: Mental Health · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Urgent consideration should be given to increasing the provision of secure mental health facilities for those who should be in a such a facility and not in a prison.

Source text verified

Recommendation 2

Addressee: Ministry of Justice · Topic: Staffing

Recommendation (the Board's words)
The vetting process should be speeded up so that people appointed subject to vetting do not find another job while waiting to be vetted.

Source text verified

Recommendation 3

Addressee: Ministry of Justice · Topic: Resettlement · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
More places should be made available for speedier transfer of category D prisoners out of category C establishments.

Source text verified

Recommendation 4

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Offender Management

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Does the Prison Service feel that it is acceptable that some establishments are allowing the transfer of prisoners without a completed OASys assessment and, if not, how does it propose to ask establishments to rectify this?

Source text verified

Recommendation 5

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Property · Repeated from a previous year

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Does the Prison Service feel that it is acceptable that some establishments are not following the rules on volumetric control and if not how does it propose to ask establishments to rectify this?

Source text verified

Recommendation 6

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Staffing

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Staffing numbers need to increase to reduce the impact of a shortage of both officers and administrative staff.

Source text verified

Recommendation 7

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Regime

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Purposeful activity opportunities, such as structured on wing activity (SOWA), need to increase for men when out of their cells.

Source text verified

Recommendation 8

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Education

Recommendation (the Board's words)
The Board has concerns about the performance of PeoplePlus, which is clearly not functioning well with low staff morale and some targets not being met.

Source text verified

Recommendation 9

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Property

Recommendation (the Board's words)
The backlog of property in in the stores needs to be addressed.

Source text verified

Key concerns 13 items

Key concerns were extracted from the report text by an AI model.

Key concern 1

Mental Health · Repeated from a previous year

Urgent consideration should be given to increasing the provision of secure mental health facilities for those who should be in such a facility and not in a prison.

Key concern 2

Staffing

The vetting process should be speeded up so that people appointed subject to vetting do not find another job while waiting to be vetted.

Key concern 3

Resettlement/Release · Repeated from a previous year

More places should be made available for speedier transfer of category D prisoners out of category C establishments.

Key concern 4

Resettlement/Release

Prisoners are being transferred to Stocken without a completed offender assessment system (OASys) assessment, which means that the assessment has to be completed at Stocken, adding pressure on the offender management unit (OMU).

Key concern 5

Other · Repeated from a previous year

Volumetric control of prisoners’ property when transferred is not being enforced and all too often men arrive at Stocken with excess property or their property is sent on (or not) after their transfer, leading to a backlog of property waiting to be security checked or not being received.

Key concern 6

Staffing

Staffing numbers need to increase to reduce the impact of a shortage of both officers and administrative staff.

Key concern 7

Regime/Time Out of Cell

Purposeful activity opportunities, such as structured on wing activity (SOWA), need to increase for men when out of their cells.

Key concern 8

Education/Purposeful Activity

The Board has concerns about the performance of PeoplePlus, which is clearly not functioning well with low staff morale and some targets not being met.

Key concern 9

Other

The backlog of property in the stores needs to be addressed.

Key concern 10

Mental Health · Repeated from a previous year

Instances are still being seen where men with mental health problems have had to be held in segregation, which is far from ideal, and where they would most certainly be better served in an appropriate secure mental facility.

Key concern 11

Segregation

The length of time potential transferees wait in segregation is a concern for the Board.

Key concern 12

Resettlement/Release

Transfer of prisoners who have been recategorised to B takes too long and is certainly not within 72 hours.

Key concern 13

Resettlement/Release · Repeated from a previous year

The shortage of places on offending behaviour programmes also means that it is likely that prisoners who might otherwise have been recategorised and moved to category D conditions cannot progress.

Safety statistics

Incidents during the reporting year.

IndicatorThis yearPrevious
Deaths in custody0not recorded
Self-harm incidents232not recorded
Prisoner assaults5145
Assaults on staff4264

Population

Population1,019
Operational capacity1,044

Applications to the IMB

CategoryCurrentPrevious
Accommodation, including laundry, clothing, ablutions 7 5
Canteen, facility list, catalogue(s) 7 0
Discipline, including adjudications, IEP, sanctions 20 10
Equality 3 3
Finance, including pay, private monies, spends 16 10
Food and kitchens 0 3
Health, including physical, mental, social care 15 25
Letters, visits, telephones, public protection restrictions 13 17
Miscellaneous, including complaints system 46 0
Property during transfer or in another establishment or location 33 6
Property within this establishment 12 23
Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, library, regime, time out of cell 34 16
Sentence management, including home detention curfew, release on temporary licence, parole, release dates, recategorisation 31 14
Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying 49 38
Transfers 23 16

Report details

Establishment
Stocken
Type
Prison, category C
Report year
2022
Published
15 November 2022
Responsible body
HMP Stocken
Recommendations
9
MoJ rating (2025/26)
3, Good

Service providers

ServiceProvider
Catering (temporary)VT Catering
Drug Rehabilitation (Inclusion)Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust
EducationPeoplePlus
Healthcare and Mental HealthPractice Plus Group
Kitchen Equipment ServicingServiceline
LibraryRutland County Council
VoluntarySamaritans
Workshop (private sector)DHL

Related inspections and investigations

HMIP inspection, 20 Jul 2026

Unannounced

HMIP inspection, 16 Jan 2023

Unannounced · Safety 4 · Respect 3 · Activity 2 · Release 3

Carl Hyde

PPO fatal incident · 5 Jan 2025 · Natural causes

Richard Hunt

Prevention of future deaths report · 8 Oct 2025 · State Custody related deaths

Other reports for Stocken

2026

Published 2 Oct 2026 · Population 1,252 · Self-harm 607 · Key concerns recorded

2025

Published 31 Oct 2025 · Population 1,264 · Self-harm 718 · Key concerns recorded

2024

Published 1 Oct 2024 · Key concerns recorded

2023

Published 16 Nov 2023 · Self-harm 407 · Key concerns recorded

2021

Published 9 Nov 2021 · Self-harm 349 · Key concerns recorded

2020

Published 10 Nov 2020 · Population 1,038 · Self-harm 387 · Key concerns recorded