Source · IMB Annual Report
The Mount
Year: 2020
Published: 26 Jun 2020
Type: Prison · Cat C
Population: 1,020
Recommendations: 3
Key concerns
Positive findings
The Independent Monitoring Board reports on HMP The Mount for 2019-2020, highlighting significant challenges stemming from chronic under-funding, which affects staffing, infrastructure, and rehabilitative opportunities. Despite these issues, the Board notes improvements in decency, security, and healthcare provision, commending staff efforts. Key concerns include the pervasive drug problem, insufficient Category D and IPP progression places, and the failure to embed new initiatives like the key worker scheme.
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 2 | — |
Positive findings
HMP The Mount staff are commended for their dedication to keeping prisoners safe and working towards rehabilitation. The prison has made significant improvements in decency issues, ACCT management, security professionalism, and monitoring of use of force. There have been positive developments in wing cleanliness, the installation of in-cell telephones, and the opening of 'the Hub' coffee shop. Healthcare provision is deemed satisfactory and comparable to community standards. Education and workshop allocation processes have improved, leading to better attendance and increasing opportunities for prisoners, with PE staff showing renewed enthusiasm for new sports initiatives. The structural situation in the workshop complex has also improved considerably.
Key concerns
Staffing
The Prison Service has had its budgets reduced over the years, leading to shortages of staff, equipment and supplies, and of work opportunities for prisoners. This leads to complaints and frustration from the prisoners, causing prison staff unnecessary ongoing problems. Either major investment needs to be put into the service with some urgency or there needs to be a policy which prevents so many people being locked up.
Resettlement/Release
There is a chronic shortage of spaces in open establishments, which often means that a prisoner waits many months for a place to be offered, and then sometimes is forced to take a place which is a long way from their home, which does not allow for proper family reintegration. More category D places need to be found, so that a proper progress through a prison sentence can be achieved.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The Mount has 44 prisoners serving Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection many of whom, if not all, have now been in prison for much longer than their tariffs. The Mount can offer these men very little to help them work towards release. They need to be in prisons where they can benefit from therapeutic communities or “progression regimes” such as that offered by HMP Warren Hill.
Substance Misuse
The availability of drugs continues to a central issue in many of the problems facing the prison, including criminality, violence, bullying and reoffending on release.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Many new and interesting initiatives are often started but not embedded, so fall by the wayside – for example, the key worker scheme. This issue needs to be addressed.
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Further workplaces need to be planned, to ensure realistic employment for all prisoners.
Response
In January, representatives from HMPPS Public Sector Prison Industries (PSPI) visited HMP The Mount to review the waste management and land based activities workshops. PSPI advised that it was within their capability to increase prisoner places and deliver Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board (WAMITAB) qualifications using the Band 4 qualified Instructor. PSPI also helped to highlight some other potential areas where workshop performance could be improved. HMP The Mount have since redesigned a number of workshops and education activities to increase activity spaces. However, for the greater number of the population it is likely that the prison will only be able to offer part time work, whilst a restricted regime is operated due to Covid-19. New Futures Network (NFN) colleagues are in regular contact with staff at the prison to explore and develop new opportunities for future work. This activity has been paused temporarily whilst prisons operate restricted regimes as mentioned above. NFN national leads are also looking to establish a co -ordinated approach to attracting and enabling current and future work opportunities within all prisons. |
Governor / Director | In progress |
| 2 |
More courses to ensure pathways to rehabilitation and release need to be put in place.
Response
Locally, HMP The Mount has introduced new programmes to support long term and IPP prisoners such as Building Better Relationships and Identity Matters. |
Governor / Director | In progress |
| 3 |
Tackling drug supply and demand needs to be central to much of the prison’s daily work.
Response
I share the Board’s concern about drugs entering HMP The Mount. To reduce the violence that is driven by debt and the operation of the illicit economy, HMPPS is working to restrict the supply of drugs, reduce demand through rehabilitative activities, and support prisoners to recover from substance misuse. You will be aware that HMPPS is investing in enhanced gate security as well as X-Ray body scanners for prisons on an unprecedented scale as part of the £100 million security investment announced last summer. This investment will help them to go further and move faster to tackle the drug supply to prisons. HMPPS has embarked on a rigorous site selection process to distribute this investment and I can reassure you that HMP The Mount is on the priority list and so will be considered in due course. In addition, HMPPS published a National Prison Drugs Strategy in 2019 to support prisons develop and implement Local Prison Drug Strategies. HMP The Mount received direct support in December 2019 from the Drug Strategy and Delivery Team. This is a multi-disciplinary team including representatives from health and law enforcement, which supported the prison to produce a local drug strategy to meet specific needs. A dedicated Drug Strategy Custodial Manager has been recently appointed at the prison and, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, staff were learning from other prisons with successful drug tackling strategies. As well as this, key risk areas have been netted to reduce the risk of illicit items being thrown into the prison. |
Governor / Director | In progress |
Applications to the IMB
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (including transfers) | 45 | 38 |
| Discipline | 26 | 12 |
| Education, training and work | 25 | 19 |
| Family visits/contact | 3 | 4 |
| Food | 4 | 2 |
| General application/miscellaneous | 30 | 21 |
| Healthcare | 30 | 43 |
| Offender management | 27 | 25 |
| Property (including compensation) | 107 | 142 |
Related inspections & investigations
11 Nov 2024
HMIP · Unannounced
Safety 3
· Respect 3
· Activity 1
· Release 3
8 Sep 2023
PFD
Kristopher Tilbury · State Custody related deaths | Alcohol, drugs medication related deaths
Other reports for The Mount
Report details
- Establishment
- The Mount
- Type
- Prison · Cat C
- Report year
- 2020
- Published
- 26 June 2020
- Responsible body
- HMP The Mount
- Recommendations
- 3
- MoJ rating (2024/25)
- 2 — Concern
Population
| Population | 1,020 |
| Operational capacity | 1,046 |
Service providers
Canteen / Logistics
DHL
Dentistry
Community Dental Services
Education
People Plus
Facilities Management
Government Facility Services Limited (GFSL)
Healthcare
Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust (HCNHST)
Pharmacy
Lloyds Pharmacy Services
Substance Abuse Treatment / Psychological Therapies
Forward Trust
Workshop Partner
Sue Ryder charity shops