Safety
First-night cells were often lacking basic equipment, such as pillows and kettles, and prisoners were not always given a welfare call on their first night in the prison.
Safety
Repeated
Accurate completion of assessment, care in custody and teamwork (ACCT) documents (used to support prisoners who are at risk of self-harm or suicide) remains an issue, as reported last year, and the Board maintains its view that the documentation is over-complicated and illogically set out and that it should be revised.
Mental Health
There was an insufficient number of Listeners (prisoners trained by the Samaritans to provide confidential emotional support to fellow prisoners) in the prison over most of the reporting year. This was largely down to the fact that, at times during the year, Listeners could not be put on hold and kept at Pentonville due to capacity pressures in the prison estate nationally.
Estate/Conditions
The crumbling fabric of the prison and poor conditions remain a serious concern to the Board. The building is susceptible to continual infestations of rats, mice, cockroaches and flies, and cells being taken out of use increases overcrowding. In addition to the potential health hazard of living with vermin, two men share cramped and sometimes damp cells built for single occupancy. These conditions are not decent or humane.
Estate/Conditions
The Board was particularly concerned about the condition of the cells in the care and separation unit, or CSU, where men are segregated, some of which have damp walls and frequently blocked drains.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Only minimal levels of key work took place, with no proper system for allocating key workers or for monitoring the number of sessions.
Equality/Diversity
Pentonville remains a completely unsuitable environment for prisoners with mobility issues.
Estate/Conditions
it was very disappointing that, due to damage to the flooring because of an undetected leak, the mosque remained out of use.
Other
Repeated
The system for transfer of prisoner property between prisons remained unfit for purpose, with prisoners often having to wait weeks or months for their belongings to arrive, and property sometimes being lost altogether.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
with structured wing activity (SWA) happening only once a day, some prisoners were still locked up for 22 hours a day or more.
Mental Health
A lack of beds in the secure mental hospitals meant that some very unwell prisoners remained in Pentonville awaiting a place, either on the in-patient unit, or sometimes on the wings or in the CSU.
Mental Health
The wellbeing centre continued to be an underused resource. This is regrettable, as Board members were frequently told by prisoners who attended the centre how beneficial they felt it was for their wellbeing.
Resettlement/Release
Government-imposed measures to reduce prison overcrowding continued to have an impact on the offender management unit’s (OMU) ability to fulfil its remit. The additional work involved in these initiatives reduced the time available for the team to complete its day-to-day work, causing much anxiety and frustration for prisoners.
Resettlement/Release
Immediate releases from court, due to long periods spent on remand, as well as transfers occurring during the last 12 weeks of sentence due to national population pressures, meant that some prisoners missed out on important pre-release support.
Substance Misuse
The Board was concerned by an increase in the availability and use of new psychotic substances (NPS), often resulting in medical emergencies.