Humber

The Board has grave concerns about the potential for long-term damage to the prisoners [due to restrictions].

As a Board, we have great concerns with the Prison Service losing operational staff to similar uniformed, salaried employment within other government organisations which pay higher salaries with enhanced conditions of employment. The prison is currently losing experienced staff officers faster than it can recruit replacements. This vacancy factor was a foreseeable and preventable situation which has inevitably resulted in poorer outcomes for prisoners. We urge the minister to re-establish competitive pay and conditions for prison staff.

The reunification of probation services on 26 June 2021 has led to the transfer of the majority of staff working within the through-the-gate team from the prison to the community. This has resulted in only one person working within the prison itself, whose role is to deal only with bank accounts (see section 7.5). Although there is a new outreach service based in the community, there is little capacity for any preparation for release programmes or processes within the prison. Prison staff are currently not able to monitor the number of prisoners released into the community with suitable housing and employment. Given the vibrant nature of the resettlement provision within HMP Humber prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Board feels that the loss of this provision is of grave concern for those in custody at HMP Humber.

There has been little, if any, practical response to the comments raised in the preceding report.

As the pandemic has continued, the Board would have hoped that the Prison Service would have demonstrated greater flexibility in its approach to HMP Humber rather than retain the rigid adherence to stated stages of recovery imposed across the prison estate.

The Board is concerned to learn that among the proposals to increase the capacity of the site is a proposal to increase the number of shared cells. The Board is strongly of the opinion that detaining prisoners in shared cells for long periods of time is not decent, and we would urge the Prison Service to reconsider.

The loss of prisoners’ property, both within the prison and during prison transfers, is continuing on a regular basis. The Board believes that the current level of property losses between prisons continues to be especially unacceptable. The Board has raised concerns around property loss in our annual reports for several years. However, we have still not seen any notable improvement in performance (see section 5.8). It causes stress to the individuals affected and also significant additional work for the prison staff, together with unnecessary costs to the tax payer.

We are concerned that the lack of available accommodation within category D establishments in the prison estate is causing a backlog of eligible prisoners unable to find places. By the end of the reporting period, HMP Humber had 38 prisoners awaiting transfer to a category D prison. This is very demoralising and demotivating for prisoners who have worked hard to gain their category D status.

The effectiveness of the key worker process has been compromised due to Covid-19 restrictions and staff shortages.

Complaints: Again, while we appreciate the effect of the Covid-19 restrictions and staff shortages, we would welcome the continuation of robust assurance checks on maintaining good, quality responses to prisoners’ complaints.