Recommendation 1
Will the minister give a clear lead to addressing the staffing crisis in the prison service by undertaking a fundamental review of the career opportunities and pay offered to its staff?
Source · IMB Annual Report
Whitemoor
AI-generated report summary HMP Whitemoor, a maximum-security prison for Categories A and B men, faced significant challenges in the reporting year ending May 2022, primarily due to a severe staffing crisis affecting all areas, including healthcare. This led to compromised regimes, particularly in the overcrowded segregation unit where severely unwell prisoners were held awaiting hospital transfer, and an inadequate purposeful activity and education offer. The Board also noted persistent issues with food provision and long waiting times for specialist healthcare appointments.
Year: 2022
Published: 1 Nov 2022
Type: Prison · Cat A, B
Population: 316
Recommendations: 6
Key concerns
Positive findings
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 2 | — |
| Self-harm incidents | 151 | 188 |
| ACCT cases opened | 119 | 202 |
| Prisoner assaults | 22 | 28 |
| Assaults on staff | 27 | 49 |
| Use of force | 303 | 240 |
Positive findings
AI-generated summaryThe Board welcomes the successful return to a Stage 1 regime and the well-managed electrical upgrading project. There has been an increase in prisoner downgrades and improved ACCT arrangements. The prison maintains a positive culture of communication and has restored partnerships for cultural and educational activities, and introduced initiatives like the healthcare garden and Pets as Therapy dogs. The key worker scheme shows commitment, and there is an increased focus on timely complaint responses.
Key concerns
Staffing crisis, including rapid turnover and a high proportion of inexperienced officers, leading to compromised key work sessions and difficulties in building relationships.
Source wording under review
However, the Board is disappointed with the prison’s failure to live up to its aspirations in some key areas like the segregation unit. The unit habitually runs at well over its allocated capacity of 18 and this results in its failing to deliver the regime required by current policy and essential to a humane environment: prisoners are routinely asked to choose two of the three essential elements of the daily regime (shower, exercise and a phone call).
Comment: The Board has reported regularly on the difficulty Whitemoor experiences in securing places for desperately sick men who are held in the segregation unit for want of anywhere else to put them and through self-harm and dirty protests descend almost to the condition of animals.
Difficulty in meeting the basic need of food that is adequate in quantity and nutritional balance, compounded by catering staff shortages, equipment breakdowns, and an inadequate daily food budget of £2.08 per head.
Struggles to re-establish a culture of purposeful activity and education, with a significant reliance on in-cell packs rather than classroom-based learning, and the loss of high-value work opportunities.
Source wording under review
It seems that it has been difficult for the Bridge unit to fulfil its potential and role as a national resource to help men prepare for a move to normal location. Its residents sometimes express dissatisfaction with the regime and a number are deselected, returning to segregation. The unit’s physical proximity to the segregation unit (and its historical use as part of that unit) result in its sometimes being used as a segregation overflow. During the reporting year the segregation unit has hardly ever operated with its established complement and consequently the regime offered by the Bridge has too often been impoverished.
Given the clear need to increase the opportunities for prisoners to have their spiritual and emotional needs met, particularly after the challenges of protracted lockdowns, the Board regrets that there is a perception in some quarters that the work of the chaplaincy is not always valued as highly as it should be. Despite what we are told have been lengthy discussions at both national and local level, Gold Command’s requirement for group sizes at corporate worship to be restricted is felt on the ground to be arbitrary and unsympathetic to the needs of the faith groups.
Recommendations
Recommendation 2
Will the minister please secure the cooperation of the Department of Health and other interested parties to conduct a wide-ranging review of the role and capacity of the secure hospitals and their relationship with the prison service?
Recommendation 3
Will HMPPS give priority to improving the training and support given to prison officers in their early years in post in order to halt the haemorrhaging of staff in the first five years after their appointment?
Recommendation 4
Will HMPPS review the way in which prisoners in high security prisons are fed, taking into account the facilities and equipment supplied for the main kitchen; the qualifications of staff; the budget allowed for the purchase of food; the canteen and its approach to pricing?
Recommendation 5
Will the Governor give personal attention to sorting out the intractable issues faced by the kitchen in order to ensure that the best possible local arrangements can be made amid the pressing national concerns about escalating living costs?
Recommendation 6
Will the Governor consider what further steps can be taken to enable the permanent separation of the segregation and the Bridge units so that they can fulfil their individual roles more effectively?
Applications to the IMB
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (including transfers) | 45 | 38 |
| Activities (including education) | 17 | 19 |
| Adjudications | 27 | 17 |
| Canteen | 16 | 12 |
| Chaplaincy | 0 | 0 |
| Children and families | 2 | 3 |
| Discrimination | 3 | 2 |
| Drugs | 0 | 0 |
| Education | 1 | 1 |
| Facilities | 2 | 1 |
| Food | 19 | 17 |
| Healthcare (including mental health) | 48 | 53 |
| Legal | 12 | 10 |
| Money and property | 39 | 27 |
| Other | 16 | 16 |
| Pay and employment | 1 | 1 |
| Privileges | 3 | 1 |
| Programmes and courses | 1 | 1 |
| Relationships with staff | 5 | 4 |
| Release | 1 | 1 |
| Segregation | 37 | 21 |
| Sentence | 21 | 13 |
| Total applications | 316 | 287 |
Related inspections & investigations
Safety 4
· Respect 3
· Activity 1
· Release 3
Safety 3
· Respect 2
· Activity 1
· Release 2
Jason Thaxter · Self-inflicted
Samuel Henneberry · Natural causes
Jason Birch · Self-inflicted
Other reports for Whitemoor
Population 4,581
· Self-harm 285
· Concerns
· Self-harm 409
· Concerns
Population 315
· Self-harm 122
· Concerns
Population 388
· Self-harm 188
· Concerns
Population 457
· Self-harm 286
· Concerns