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Independent Monitoring Boards annual report

Five Wells

Report year 2026 Published 9 Sep 2026 Type Prison, category C Population 1,757 Responsible body HMP Five Wells 9 recommendations

Original IMB report page ↗ Ministerial response, 8 Oct 2026 ↗ 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 Five Wells, a Category C prison, saw a population of 1,757 against an operational capacity of 1,769 by March 2026. The year brought improved staff-prisoner relationships, stable regime delivery, and significant reductions in self-harm, violence, and use of force incidents. However, concerns persist regarding overcrowding, limited purposeful activity, staffing shortfalls (especially for education and workshops), and persistent issues in healthcare access, IT systems, and resettlement outcomes, particularly for employment and accommodation post-release.

Positive findings

Summary written by this site (AI-generated)
The prison has benefitted from stable leadership during the year, improving communications, staff and prisoner relationships, and staffing levels. A stable ‘green’ regime has operated throughout the year with minimum disruption. Staff recruitment and retention have improved, leading to a more experienced prison officer population. The Board observed good progress in many areas, including a reduction in substance misuse incidents, self-harm (down significantly to 1,603 incidents), use of force (down 30%), and violent behaviour (down 49% to 297 incidents). Accommodation standards remain good, and support systems for neurodivergent prisoners have greatly improved. Education outcomes and library participation have seen positive trends.

Recommendations

All 9 recommendations

Key concerns

All 19 key concerns

Recommendations 9 items

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: Other, minister · Topic: Resettlement

Recommendation (the Board's words)
What improvements is the Minister planning to support prisoners without a licence requirement, particularly in relation to accommodation and access to services, given the heightened risk of reoffending shortly after release?

Source text verified

Recommendation 2

Addressee: Other, minister · Topic: Resettlement

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Given concerns about the reduced availability of approved premises, what assurance can the Minister provide that sufficient accommodation capacity will be available, both locally and nationally, to meet current and future demand?

Source text verified

Recommendation 3

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Education

Recommendation (the Board's words)
Noting the high demand for Building Choices at Five Wells but the limited numbers of prisoners able to access the programme, what plans does HMPPS have to expand capacity and enable more prisoners to benefit from these courses?

Source text verified

Recommendation 4

Addressee: HMPPS · Topic: Estate

Recommendation (the Board's words)
How will the Prison Service address the shortage of suitable space for delivering courses and initiatives, particularly in key areas such as neurodiversity and mental health support?

Source text verified

Recommendation 5

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Safety

Recommendation (the Board's words)
How will the prison continue to improve its performance in respect of safety, including addressing issues raised in the external reviews of deaths in custody?

Source text verified

Recommendation 6

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Regime

Recommendation (the Board's words)
How will the prison embed good practice in areas in which concerns have been raised, such as searching, enforcement of the incentives scheme and servery oversight?

Source text verified

Recommendation 7

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Resettlement

Recommendation (the Board's words)
How will the prison ensure that the qualifications offered at Five Wells provide genuine access to work opportunities on release?

Source text verified

Recommendation 8

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Regime

Recommendation (the Board's words)
How will the prison meet its targets for purposeful activity?

Source text verified

Recommendation 9

Addressee: Governor / Director · Topic: Healthcare

Recommendation (the Board's words)
What action is being taken to improve the use of technology across the prison, including ensuring that healthcare and other staff have timely access to the systems they need to work effectively and deliver high-quality services?

Source text verified

Key concerns 19 items

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

Key concern 1

Overcrowding · Repeated from a previous year

The operational capacity of the prison has been increased, leading to single cells housing two prisoners and impacting purposeful activity, with the Board remaining concerned about two prisoners sharing cells designed for one.

Source wording under review

Key concern 2

Estate/Conditions · Repeated from a previous year

Shortage of suitable space for delivering courses and initiatives, particularly in key areas such as neurodiversity and mental health support, affecting the prison’s ability to deliver the full range of activities and programmes originally intended due to building design issues.

Key concern 3

Regime/Time Out of Cell

Inconsistencies in staff implementing the regime, including inconsistent or poor-quality searching, enforcement of the incentives scheme, and servery oversight.

Key concern 4

Staffing

Delays in vetting new recruits for education and workshops, affecting available places and training with external accreditation, and ongoing vacancies for key roles such as pharmacy, GP, psychologist, and paramedic staff.

Source wording under review

Key concern 5

Healthcare

Persistent issues with IT access for healthcare staff (CMS) preventing electronic communication with prisoners and efficient medication management, leading to delays for routine appointments, including up to four weeks for a GP.

Source wording under review

Key concern 6

Safety · Repeated from a previous year

Ongoing investigations into four deaths in custody, with recurring themes identified by the PPO regarding the use of restraints when seriously ill prisoners were transported or treated, and the timeliness of healthcare responses and transfers to hospital.

Source wording under review

Key concern 7

Safety

The quality of challenge, support and intervention plans (CSIPs), used to manage prisoners with violent tendencies, could be improved by setting appropriate individual targets and using multi-disciplinary team reviews.

Source wording under review

Key concern 8

Safety

Challenges remain in ensuring the consistent application of good practice in use of force incidents, including the use of handheld cameras during planned incidents and ensuring body worn video cameras (BWVCs) are activated in all incidents.

Key concern 9

Education/Purposeful Activity

Limited capacity for the 'Building Choices' programme despite high demand, meaning fewer eligible prisoners can participate, which could have implications for their rehabilitation and future risk of reoffending.

Source wording under review

Key concern 10

Regime/Time Out of Cell

The number of visitors has continued to decline, with adult visits falling by around 11% and child visits by 40% in the year to March 2026, due to factors such as PCoSO restrictions, distant home locations, and high prisoner turnover.

Key concern 11

Resettlement/Release

The Official Prison Visitors service has not been available due to a lack of volunteers, and the Storybook Dads service has not yet been available.

Key concern 12

Resettlement/Release

Accommodation on release remains challenging, with approximately 27% of prisoners indicating they would be homeless or in CAS3, and 55% of releases going to regions other than East of England where contracted rehabilitative services for accommodation support were not available.

Source wording under review

Key concern 13

Resettlement/Release

A significant factor negatively influencing employability on release is the reluctance by employers to offer a job to a PCoSO, leading to low employment rates of around 7% six weeks after release.

Key concern 14

Resettlement/Release

DWP staff and others working in the resettlement hub often reported that they lacked access to suitable private space in which to meet and interview prisoners.

Key concern 15

Resettlement/Release

Opportunities to apply for driving licences have not yet been available, despite 26% of prisoners reporting no form of identification in pre-release surveys.

Source wording under review

Key concern 16

Complaints/Property · Repeated from a previous year

Issues related to property, which arose during transfer from other prisons, continue to be a significant driver of applications to the IMB, with no effective national process in place to follow up these cases.

Source wording under review

Key concern 17

Food/Catering

Widely varying standards in the serveries, such as the use of hands to serve food and the wearing of inappropriate clothing.

Key concern 18

Segregation

A small number of prisoners, particularly those being transferred to Category B prisons, remain in the Care and Separation Unit for longer than ideal.

Key concern 19

Equality/Diversity

Lack of seating for disabled visitors and occasional unavailability of disabled parking spaces in the visits area, along with the inability to pay for refreshments by card.

Safety statistics

Incidents during the reporting year.

IndicatorThis yearPrevious
Deaths in custody4not recorded
Self-harm incidents1,6032,326
Prisoner assaults297586
Use of force772not recorded

Population

Population1,757
Operational capacity1,769
Time out of cell7.2h/day

Applications to the IMB

CategoryCurrentPrevious
Accommodation, including laundry, clothing, ablutions 42 37
Canteen, facility list, catalogues 18 40
Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions 38 54
Equality 4 0
Finance, including pay, private monies, spends 29 39
Food and kitchens 22 35
Health, including physical, mental, social care 83 114
Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions 18 37
Miscellaneous 82 155
Property during transfer or in another facility 49 55
Property within the establishment 56 79
Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell 40 41
Sentence management, including HDC (home detention curfew), ROTL (release on temporary licence), parole, release dates, re-categorisation 63 45
Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying 42 46
Transfers 4 15

Report details

Establishment
Five Wells
Type
Prison, category C
Report year
2026
Published
9 September 2026
Responsible body
HMP Five Wells
Recommendations
9
MoJ rating (2025/26)
3, Good

Service providers

ServiceProvider
Assistance with financial needs, debt issues and setting up benefit payments ready for releaseDepartment for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Charity supporting literacy and numeracy developmentShannon Trust
Commissioned Rehabilitative Service (CRS) accommodation support serviceIngeus
Education and skills providerNovus
Health and social care charity, delivering life skills’ coursesChange, Grow, Live
NHS-commissioned healthcare providerPractice Plus Group
Prison food contractAramark
Probation ServiceProbation Service
Provider of employment servicesNew Futures Network
Social care providerNorth Northamptonshire Council
Support in securing accommodation in preparation for releaseSeetec
Support servicesSamaritans
Visitor centre servicesInvisible Walls
Wellbeing services after releaseNacro

Related inspections and investigations

HMIP inspection, 11 May 2026

Unannounced

HMIP inspection, 4 Nov 2024

IRP

HMIP inspection, 2 Jan 2024

Unannounced · Safety 2 · Respect 2 · Activity 1 · Release 3

Stefan Slack

PPO fatal incident · 20 Nov 2022 · Natural causes

Other reports for Five Wells

2025

Published 3 Oct 2025 · Population 1,735 · Self-harm 2,326 · Key concerns recorded

2024

Published 16 Oct 2024 · Population 1,700 · Key concerns recorded

2023

Published 12 Sep 2023 · Population 1,200 · Key concerns recorded