Estate/Conditions
Repeated
The fabric of this Victorian prison, including the reception area and the gatehouse, is not fit for purpose, and the offender management unit’s prefabricated structure was condemned 15 years ago. Despite previous responses acknowledging these problems, no apparent progress has been made to address this or secure alternative solutions in the past year.
Safety
Repeated
The Board remains seriously concerned about the physical limitations of the reception area, an issue we have raised repeatedly in previous reports. The numbers of prisoner movements and the lack of space often make it impossible to hold confidential conversations about risk with individuals.
Safety
Lack of space in the first night centre makes it difficult for staff to carry out interviews and screenings for health and risks.
Safety
The levels of violence continued to remain high, with 18-to-25-year-olds being the main perpetrators according to data analysed by the Board.
Estate/Conditions
HMP/YOI Preston is a Victorian prison and, as such, does not meet modern accommodation or access standards. Cells do not meet the standards laid out in HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ (HMIP) report, Life in Prison: Living Conditions. The Board has observed cells that are in a poor state, with evidence of mould, condensation, broken plaster and inadequate ventilation.
Food/Catering
Repeated
Kitchen and catering issues: the Board spends a lot of time looking into these problems and, despite the best efforts of the kitchen staff, it will require constant monitoring.
Complaints/Property
Repeated
It is rare for prisoners to receive answers to their complaints within the specified timescale and, on occasion, there have delays of multiple months in dealing with issues.
Other
Repeated
Cell clearances and transfer of property between prisons remain problematic, leading to significant loss of property and numerous IMB applications, with some issues attributed to staff negligence and pilfering in the new laundry system.
Source wording under review
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
Prison PINs (personal identification numbers) remain an ongoing problem: these unique codes are assigned to prisoners and allow them to make calls only to a pre-approved list of phone numbers. Under the new public protection policy, all prisoners received into custody must undergo a public protection sift. While these checks are being completed, there can be delays in identifying and recording prisoners with public protection concerns, such as those posing a risk to children or with a history of domestic violence. The Board recognises the importance of security, particularly for vulnerable individuals; however, it remains concerned about the potential impact of such delays on family relationships.
Mental Health
The in-house mental health team (IMHT) is not fully staffed, currently lacking a psychologist or higher assistant psychologist.
Mental Health
Guidelines advise that beds should be made available within 28 days of referral, but this rarely happens.
Mental Health
On occasion, the Ministry of Justice does not agree with the level of security, so will not provide the prison with a movement order. The prison will then have to refer the prisoner to another setting. Currently, there are five prisoners awaiting admission to an NHS Foundation Trust's secure mental health in-patient hospital, and one prisoner awaiting admission to a psychiatric intensive care unit.
Resettlement/Release
The IMHT care team does have regular contact with the community mental health teams (CMHT). However, it is sometimes difficult to hand over care to CMHT, as they will not acknowledge the clinical diagnosis of the IMHT. Often, these patients are homeless and, without an address, the CMHTs will not accept them. If they have to go to approved premises, this is identified at the last minute, delaying the referral to a CMHT.
Mental Health
The use of different technological systems by both the HMP Preston IMHT and the CMHTs has been highlighted as a possible contributory factor in delays in securing the appropriate care and treatment for those vulnerable prisoners with ongoing mental health issues. This means that ‘live’ data is not available at any given time to the relevant providers/areas.
Education/Purposeful Activity
The sad death of the librarian had an inevitable, but unfortunate, effect on the provision of a service highly valued by prisoners. The time needed to fill the vacancy has resulted in reduced opening hours, occasional closures for staff holiday and significant limits on the Storybook Dads sessions (a charity programme where prisoners record audio or video bedtime stories for their children to listen to or watch at home).
Resettlement/Release
The OMU continues to complete offender assessments (OASys) in a timely way, in the Board’s view, and all sentenced prisoners seem to be allocated POMs appropriately. The Board is concerned that remand prisoners, who account for the 80% of the population, do not always have this level of support and guidance.
Resettlement/Release
Early release programmes have led to many prisoners being recalled for short periods, due to their failure to comply with licence conditions. What strategies are being taken to improve community offender management to reduce the number of recalls for non-compliance, and how will the Minister ensure that the prison is not unduly impacted by recall rates?
Resettlement/Release
The prison has been allocated bail information officers, but they can make little impact without the development of a whole network of community support. In previous years, there were bail hostels, bail support schemes and bail beds. To reduce the number of prisoners unnecessarily remanded in custody, we need to consider re-developing these facilities.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Prisoners working as orderlies in reception are not consistently given opportunities for exercise in fresh air.