Recommendation 1
The Board eagerly awaits HMP Humber’s return to being a training and resettlement prison. When will the Minister consider this return?
Source · IMB Annual Report
Humber
AI-generated report summary HMP Humber, a Category C resettlement prison, experienced significant challenges in 2024 due to high prisoner turnover and population pressures. While the Board commends management's efforts in maintaining safety and improving regime stability, issues persist concerning property loss, inadequate purposeful activity, and cell sharing. Healthcare provision is improving but faces space and recruitment challenges, while key worker schemes are compromised by staffing shortages.
Year: 2024
Published: 5 Aug 2025
Type: Prison · Cat C resettlement prison
Population: 1,034
Recommendations: 4
Key concerns
Positive findings
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 6 | — |
| Self-harm incidents | 1,175 | 725 |
| ACCT cases opened | 600 | 459 |
| Prisoner assaults | 238 | 129 |
| Assaults on staff | 104 | 79 |
| Use of force | 771 | 554 |
| Drug finds | 439 | 237 |
Positive findings
AI-generated summaryThe Board commends the professionalism and resilience of the Governor and SMT, who tirelessly prioritize safety and work to improve the regime. HMP Humber is generally a safe place for men, with a strong culture of care and effective use of data to counter negative trends. Staff-prisoner relationships are constructive, and significant improvements have been made in managing complaints and healthcare provision, including mental health services. The appointment of a long-term conditions nurse and positive collaboration with local authorities for resettlement are also welcomed.
Key concerns
The Board is gravely concerned that the high level of ‘short time to release’ prisoners, has created significant ‘churn’ pressure on all functions within the prison, in some way. It has greatly impacted its ability to offer prisoners the structure, regime and support required for their care and subsequent transition back into the community.
There were not enough education, skills or workplaces to meet the needs of a quarter of the prison population, and attendance was low.
Too many prisoners were released to no fixed abode or to unsustainable accommodation.
The prison was not doing enough to tackle the behaviour of perpetrators of violence.
Violence and self-harm were often related to prisoners being in debt to others.
Some areas of medicines’ management were weak and some clinical areas did not meet infection-control standards, creating unnecessary risk.
There were gaps in the provision for prisoners with disabilities.
256 prisoners were sharing cells designated for single occupancy, which the Board views as unsatisfactory or not decent.
Even though the key worker figures have improved since the last reporting year, they have been low for most of the year. This is because staffing pressures often dictate that staff must be redeployed to other duties of a higher priority, due to the behaviour of prisoners, the need for escorts and restricted duties or staff sickness.
Again, regrettably the issue of prisoner property has not improved with regard to prisoners transferring into HMP Humber. Levels of property loss between prisons still continue to be unacceptable. It causes stress to the individuals affected and also significant additional work for the prison staff, together with unnecessary costs to the taxpayer in compensation payments. It has been greatly exacerbated by the ‘churn’ of prisoners, moving around the estate, over the past year.
Additional workload from increased population turnover and drug/alcohol influence has impacted healthcare providers, and clinic room space is oversubscribed.
Source wording under review
Recommendations
Recommendation 2
Additionally, the Board looks forward to considering the proposed sentencing review and hopes there will be a greater emphasis on non-custodial sentences. Can the Minister provide a timeline for the review?
Recommendation 3
Again, regrettably the issue of prisoner property has not improved with regard to prisoners transferring into HMP Humber. Levels of property loss between prisons still continue to be unacceptable. It causes stress to the individuals affected and also significant additional work for the prison staff, together with unnecessary costs to the taxpayer in compensation payments. It has been greatly exacerbated by the ‘churn’ of prisoners, moving around the estate, over the past year. Vague promises of digital changes in the long term are not helping with an immediate and longstanding daily problem. It appears to the Board that a significant cause of these losses is the result of poor contract strategy, which places insufficient onus on the transport provider and ineffective enforcement of performance standards. How and when will the Prison Service address this serious issue?
Recommendation 4
The Board is strongly of the opinion that detaining prisoners in shared cells designed for single occupancy for long periods of time is not fair or decent. What steps will the Prison Service take to prevent this happening wherever possible?
Applications to the IMB
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (including transfers) | 45 | 38 |
| Charges and Adjudications | 12 | 10 |
| Healthcare | 46 | 59 |
| Other | 77 | 103 |
| Property (current establishment) | 25 | 23 |
| Property (from previous establishment) | 28 | 21 |
| Sentence Management | 40 | 32 |
| Total | 274 | 286 |
| Visits | 1 | 0 |
Related inspections & investigations
Safety 3
· Respect 3
· Activity 2
· Release 3
Scott Berry · Self-inflicted
Declan Carr · Self-inflicted
Richard Cosgrove · Other non-natural
Craig Chappell · State Custody related deaths
Other reports for Humber
Population 977
· Self-harm 879
· Concerns
Population 1,007
· Self-harm 725
· Concerns
Population 960
· Self-harm 344
· Concerns
Population 898
· Self-harm 544
· Concerns