Ranby

Could the Minister tell us why, when the prisons are in serious need of extra accommodation, the building of much needed house blocks is being rescheduled, especially as much of the infrastructure is in place?

We advised the Minister in our report last year that prisoners have been constantly located in the CSU due to their complex and challenging behaviour and mental health issues. Why has the situation remained unchanged since our last report?

Unavailability of courses can sometimes mean prisoners are unable to meet their sentence plan. How will the Minister address this problem?

The prison continues to be seriously overcrowded. We ask once again what steps will the Prison Service take to effectively manage the operational capacity of the prison?

The churn of prisoners with a short time to serve on their sentences continues to be a problem for Ranby as a training prison with a rehabilitative ethos. This situation continues to cause issues with resettlement and progression. We ask again what will the Prison Service do to address this problem?

Once again, we note that the proportion of inexperienced staff has continued to rise. How does the Prison Service plan to improve the training of inexperienced staff?

The level of illegal substances in the prison has remained high. What measures will the Prison Service take to tackle this situation?

As highlighted in last year’s report, the problem with prisoners’ canteen continues. Although the prison has worked with suppliers to try to address the issue, there have still been too many instances reported to the Board regarding canteen items not being delivered in accordance with what has been ordered. The delays in refunds being issued have an adverse effect on the attitude and morale of the prisoners. It is apparent that the delay in many instances is unwarranted and is still a cause for concern, which can only be rectified by much better contract management at a higher level, in the Board’s view. How will the Prison Service improve the situation?

One of the biggest issues raised by prisoners is the loss of property. Belongings often seem to go missing during transfers from other establishments, resulting in a long wait for prisoners to be reunited with their property or, in some cases, the property is never ever located. Prisoners become unhappy and frustrated with the system. When property is finally deemed as lost, it would appear prisoners have difficulty in claiming compensation. How does the Prison Service plan to resolve this problem?

During the reporting year the attendance of prisoners going to work has increased from an average of 60% in 2024/2025 to 70% in 2025/2026. Although attendance at purposeful activity has increased by 10% (to 70%) in this reporting year, the Board still has concerns that 30% of prisoners are not attending.

The Board has been aware that there have problems regarding role reconciliation (ensuring that all individuals are consistently accounted for). This would indicate that the reconciliation process is still not robust enough. Could the Governor explain how the prison management is intending to rectify the situation?

During the reporting year, prisoners have informed the Board that complaint forms, IMB complaint forms and Independent Prison Complaint Investigation (IPCI) ombudsman forms have not been available on the house blocks. We have brought this matter up with the wing Governors on several occasions and also with the Governor at our Board meetings, but little appears to have been done to rectify the problem. We would expect the IPCI forms to be readily available in their own area and not in the IMB boxes. Could the Governor explain what will be done to rectify the situation?