Safety
Repeated
There have been six deaths in custody since our last report, bringing the total number of deaths at the prison to 20 in six years.
Substance Misuse
Repeated
Prisoners report that drugs are still readily available, mandatory drugs testing has shown positive results almost reaching 50%, and there is a marked increase in the number of 'code blue' calls for prisoners unresponsive under the influence of drugs.
Mental Health
Self-harm incidents have fallen slightly, but the number of individuals who self-harm has increased.
Safety
Prisoner-on-prisoner violence has fallen, but assaults on staff are still at a high level, and the use of force on prisoners has increased significantly.
Complaints/Property
The prison complaints system has been improved, but the Board receives many applications about late and inadequate responses.
Healthcare
Repeated
The provision of healthcare to prisoners is still a major concern due to no head of department for sustained periods, staff shortages, no healthcare cover at night, the use of agency staff leading to lack of continuity in care, long delays in finding placements for severely mentally ill prisoners in secure hospitals, and long waits for dentist and optician appointments.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The number of key work sessions with prisoners is still below target.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Delivery of behavioural courses has been hampered by staffing issues in the psychology department.
Resettlement/Release
Prisoners with category C and D status are waiting many months for transfers to suitable prisons.
Resettlement/Release
Prisoners are released without full support, due to staffing issues within probation services at the prison.
Other
The prison has a duty to inform the IMB whenever there is an event classed as a ‘serious incident’, but this has not happened on numerous occasions during the year.
Estate/Conditions
The reception area is often cluttered, poorly laid out and badly organised, and holding rooms are small and bare.
Other
Prisoners frequently express their frustration at being unable to access their property, which is stored in reception, and property going missing during transfers.
Safety
Repeated
HM Coroner was heavily critical of the failure to learn from previous deaths in custody at Lowdham Grange and found failings in culture and systems contributed to three self-inflicted deaths.
Safety
Concerns over the lack of staff training and guidance in the use of Hydramist to deal with cell fires.
Source wording under review
Safety
The Board visited prisoners subject to ACCTs and found that, generally, they received limited support. Observations were being carried out by the Board; however, the recording of this was often chaotic and paperwork was sometimes difficult for Board members to locate in order to document their interaction with the prisoner.
Safety
The high number of prisoners on an ACCT on some wings, plus staff unfamiliar with the wing, led to poor-quality support for some vulnerable men.
Safety
Repeated
High levels of violence have continued at the prison throughout the reporting period.
Safety
Demand for Challenge, Support and Intervention Plans (CSIPs) was greater than the supply of trained staff to support these plans.
Safety
The Board is not aware of any measurement to identify if the CSIP plans had challenged the perpetrators of violence or supported them to change their behaviour.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Staff shortages and inexperienced officers on the wings frequently meant self-isolating prisoners were not identified and did not have access to showers, exercise, or food.
Safety
It has not been possible to provide a full breakdown of planned versus spontaneous use of force incidents, as the records available to the Board are incomplete.
Safety
Repeated
Governance of UoF incidents was previously judged to be very poor by HM Inspectorate of Prison (HMIP), who considered that there was insufficient oversight and accountability for custody officers.
Safety
The Board is aware of nine occasions when Pava was drawn or used in the reporting year, although no Board members were advised of the incidents, which makes monitoring its use very challenging.
Safety
Use of Force scrutiny meetings were either cancelled or moved to different days/times without warning, making attendance impossible for several periods.
Safety
No evidence that operational managers are routinely checking on prisoners who have been subject to force in the 24 hours after the event.
Substance Misuse
The Board has serious concerns about prisoner safety and staff wellbeing when the availability of illicit drugs is so great.
Estate/Conditions
Observed poor standards of cleanliness on wings at times.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Complaints that some phones, especially in the Care and Separation Unit (CSU), are not working.
Food/Catering
Complaints about small portion sizes, with Board members witnessing very small lunches being served.
Food/Catering
Prisoners in the CSU have complained of feeling hungry and/or finding food inedible.
Estate/Conditions
One wing reported three microwaves were broken and had not been replaced, despite several requests to the works department.
Estate/Conditions
The fabric of the CSU remains tired and needs regular redecoration; cells are often out of action due to damage.
Staffing
Staff have frequently told us that the unit is understaffed, and this has impacted on the regime offered on many occasions.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Prisoners have little purposeful activity in the unit. We have not observed in-cell activities. Exercise is limited to 30 minutes a day and this has, too often, been disrupted due to staff shortages.
Healthcare
The lack of attendance by a member of staff from the healthcare department at segregation reviews remains a concern.
Staffing
Staff were frequently assigned to wings where they were not familiar with the prisoners accommodated there, impacting relationships and continuity.
Resettlement/Release
Prisoners expressed frustrations that the lack of contact with offender management unit staff was affecting their sentence progression.
Equality/Diversity
Equality issues failed to be monitored and managed during most of the reporting year due to no consistent person in place as the equality officer, resulting in no data.
Complaints/Property
The Prisoner Information and Advice Committee (PIAC) and User Voice were disbanded, with prisoners feeling they weren't getting answers.
Equality/Diversity
There has been no steering group for younger prisoners, few activities for older prisoners, and a lack of association time for retired prisoners.
Equality/Diversity
Equality data is unavailable for this 12-month period, and Discrimination Incident Report Forms (DIRFs) were not getting a reply due to lack of resources.
Source wording under review
Healthcare
The planned change for Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHCFT) to have a directly employed GP arrangement for the prison was not implemented successfully, leading to no GP provision for one week.
Healthcare
Plans to store medicines in individual locked cupboards are still being delayed, and frequent changes in regime have hindered healthcare staff delivering medication rounds.
Safety
A serious incident, when a prisoner successfully hid a knife and then stabbed a prison officer while at the hospital, has caused further anxiety about the risk involved in attendance at hospitals.
Mental Health
The loss of a psychology service, which had affected major beneficial changes in the care of the prisoners with the most severe mental health issues, was a direct consequence of the changes in management from Serco to Sodexo.
Mental Health
Delays in implementing a wellbeing centre to deliver positive outcomes for mental health, which was planned and funded over two years ago.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The severe limitations posed by the regimes during the year have had a negative impact on prisoner health, evident in the number of ACCTs.
Healthcare
Recent inquests into deaths in the prison have, again, raised the issue of the provision of a healthcare service at night. This is now an urgent matter, with demands on ambulance services causing wider problems for their response times.
Education/Purposeful Activity
The library opening times make it difficult for full-time workers to attend; it is not well resourced and has a limited budget for improvements.
Staffing
Repeated
The probation team in the Offender Management Unit (OMU) remains under-resourced, with only nine probation officers in role managing caseloads of over 90 prisoners, leading to the department being overloaded.
Staffing
It has consistently been raised by prisoners that probation officers did not see prisoners in person ‘on the wings’ from November 2023 until January 2025. This delay, as reported by managers, directly resulted from unsafe prison conditions, and OMU staff attendance is still subject to the ongoing approval of the prison health and safety team. The impact on prisoners is that for many months they had been contacted only by phone, and the Board is concerned that this has inhibited the quality of probation officer and prisoner engagement.
Estate/Conditions
The Board notes that there are no longer allocated interview rooms in each house block for probation officers to use for one-to-one sessions with prisoners. Probation officers are reliant on interacting with prisoners in visits or on the wing and need a safe and private space to work in. The view of the Board is that this is neither in the prisoners’ nor the probation officers’ best interests.
Resettlement/Release
Transferred-in prisoners to HMP Lowdham Grange have still been arriving with incomplete records.
Resettlement/Release
Decisions made by staff in the OMU responsible for public protection issues were a concern for the Board for much of the reporting period. We received many applications (prisoners’ written or verbal representations to the IMB) and other complaints from prisoners relating to cuts in family ties. By the end of summer 2024, it had been noted by the Board that nearly every case review had generated a negative outcome for the prisoner, and the Governor conceded that to be the case.
Resettlement/Release
There is no restorative justice programme at HMP Lowdham Grange.
Resettlement/Release
Prisoners have reported to the Board that they find it difficult to enrol on courses to help them progress to category C status (which means they are eligible for transfer to a lower security level category prison), complete their sentence plan, or improve their chances of parole when their sentence is sufficiently advanced.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Employment offered affords prisoners little opportunity to gain recognised qualifications or useful experience for future employment.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Prisoners' studies are hampered by a lack of access to computers and the internet, and disruptions from prison transfers.
Resettlement/Release
The Board notes that two prisoners had been waiting so long for a transfer to a category C prison that they obtained category D status (which makes them eligible for transfer to an open prison) while still at HMP Lowdham Grange.
Resettlement/Release
The OMU, however, had limited flexibility during the reporting year with regard to what they were able to offer.
Resettlement/Release
However, at the end of the reporting year, there was a waiting list of 80, with only 18 men currently going through the programme a year. Each delivery group has eight men on it. The Board considers that prisoner throughput is unsatisfactory based on need.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Course delivery has been impacted significantly by regime changes and staffing issues, leading to extended course durations.
Staffing
A lack of qualified psychologists makes it difficult to introduce more non-accredited programmes for prisoners.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Social visit sessions have been limited to a maximum of 25 prisoners, reduced from 45 pre-Covid, and the number of days for family social visits was cut.
Source wording under review
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Prisoners have expressed to the Board their numerous concerns regarding a reduction in visiting hours and ongoing problems booking social visits. Dates to book become available on 15th of each month, and there has been a scramble to book prime slots, with many appearing to be ‘block booked’.
Equality/Diversity
150 prisoners have not received social visits at all during the reporting year.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Families are being delayed unduly by entry gate searches, and escorts to and from wings regularly run late, cutting short friends and family time.
Equality/Diversity
Prisoners have expressed to the Board that outside play is targeted at only the youngest children, so the prison has planned to remedy that with a ‘family outside visit centre’.
Resettlement/Release
HMP Lowdham Grange is not resourced as a resettlement prison, and the probation team is completing the ‘resettlement role’ without adequate support or expertise.