Source · IMB Annual Report
Pentonville
Year: 2024
Published: 29 Oct 2024
Type: Prison · Cat B/C local YOI
Population: 1,195
Recommendations: 10
Key concerns
Positive findings
HMP Pentonville, a Category B local prison, experienced significant challenges in the reporting year, marked by overcrowding with a population of 1,195 against a CNA of 909. The prison saw a 28% increase in violence and a 13% rise in self-harm incidents, alongside chronic issues with infrastructure, pest infestations, and limited time out of cell for prisoners. Staffing shortages impacted key services, and critical concerns included the lack of mental health secure beds and the unsatisfactory conditions of worship areas.
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 2 | 1 |
| Self-harm incidents | 610 | 540 |
| ACCT cases opened | 674 | — |
| Prisoner assaults | 600 | 469 |
| Assaults on staff | 180 | — |
| Use of force | 895 | 798 |
Positive findings
The Board noted positive improvements in Reception and Early Days in Custody. The Prisoner Platform Meeting was commended for its effectiveness and influence. There was also good care for transgender prisoners and successful organisation of religious festivals. New Models of Care improved mental health assessments, and the Neurodiverse Unit continued to function well. Good use was made of in-cell TV channels and faith-based publications, and the education programme in Pentonville was highlighted as a great resource.
Key concerns
Safety
Inadequate completion of Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) documentation used in the care-planning process for prisoners identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm remained an issue, with important elements regularly not completed and insufficient evidence of meaningful conversations. The ACCT process and its supporting documentation is a problem and contributed to these poor standards. It is overly complicated, illogically set out and should be revised.
Staffing
The Board observed that the Safer Custody department in the prison struggled to adequately fulfil its remit. This is due to management changes, time taken up by attending inquests and understaffing, particularly towards the end of the reporting year.
Safety
Violence levels increased by 28% on the previous reporting year and increased steadily over the last few months of the reporting year. The appointment of a Violence Reduction Officer meant that reasons for violence could be more easily identified. However, the officer was re-deployed at various times during the year which reduced the opportunity for thorough investigations and the identification of the causes of violence.
Estate/Conditions
The lack of privacy and cramped conditions cannot be said to be decent or humane. In addition, there are major problems with the fabric and infrastructure. The buildings, including cells, are porous to continual infestations of rats, mice, cockroaches and flies. Blitzes by Rentokil provided only temporary respite.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
The roof above the mosque is in a terrible state of disrepair and leaks. The Board believes that the large temporary tarpaulin over the mosque ceiling is an inappropriate fix for a space that has been allocated as a place of worship and the roof and ceiling should be repaired properly and promptly.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The Basic level of the incentive scheme restricts the number of showers that a prisoner can take. This undermines decency and must not be included in the local incentives policy.
Mental Health
The lack of beds in secure hospitals has led to very unwell men remaining in the prison and men staying on the wings or in the care and separation unit (CSU) awaiting a place in the prison’s in-patient unit.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
Many prisoners spent around 22 hours a day locked in their cells. The Board considers that this an unacceptably long time to be locked away, reduces opportunities for rehabilitation, is inhumane and amounts to the warehousing of a significant proportion of Pentonville’s population.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Repeated
Unreliable and late unlocking by wing staff remained a frustration for education tutors and valuable teaching time was lost. In late March, attendance was approximately 55% from an allocation of 75%.
Staffing
Repeated
Additional demands have been placed on the Offender Management Unit (OMU) because of a flurry of government-imposed measures taken to manage the overcrowding in prisons. The additional work in identifying prisoners for relocation to other prisons, early release and changes to rules on home detention curfews have all placed extra work on an already fragile team without extra resource.
Equality/Diversity
Prisoners in a wheelchair do not have access to many areas of the prison, including some of the exercise yards. There are very few cells adapted to their needs. Pentonville is not a suitable prison to hold prisoners with reduced mobility.
Food/Catering
However, the main issue was a rat infestation in the main kitchen, particularly since November. Rat droppings, rat vomit and other excrement were regularly seen in the kitchen, and the service provided by Rentokil did not solve the problem, with a lack of an escalation plan when the problem persisted. This was a serious health and safety hazard which the Board considered senior management did not deal with in a sufficiently serious and timely manner.
Complaints/Property
The lack of confidence amongst prison staff in the value of referrals of more serious offences committed in the prison to both the Independent Adjudicator (IA) and the police.
Staffing
Key work has never had a chance to embed itself and limps along in a moribund state with some months better than others.
Other
The prison has therefore returned to the temporary Covid-19 arrangement (implemented to allow social distancing) of using the social visits hall for in-person visits in the mornings, resulting in a loss of confidentiality.
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
What measures is the Minister planning to take to reduce overcrowding in the prison system, in light of the fact that the prison estate nationally is almost at capacity and projected to increase still further before additional spaces become available under the current prison building programme?
Response
I understand the Board’s continued concerns on the operating capacity and crowding at HMP Pentonville. I can provide assurances to the Board that cells are only shared where a Prison Group Director has assessed them to be of adequate size and condition in line with the standards in the HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Cell Certification Framework, which ensures that prisoners are accommodated safely even when held in crowded conditions. Furthermore, the Board will be aware of the announcement that was made by the Lord Chancellor on 12 July 2024 to help reduce the pressure on prison places by temporarily reducing the time standard determinate sentenced prisoners serve in prison from 50% to 40% of their sentence, subject to certain exclusions. These measures will have a positive impact on lowering the proportion of crowding in the prison estate. However, I appreciate that the extent to which the proportion of prisoners held in crowded accommodation can be reduced will always be dependent on levels of demand in the system and this is why we are proactively addressing that pressure in the longer-term – we plan to publish a ten-year prison capacity strategy shortly and have recently announced an Independent Sentencing Review. |
Other | In progress |
| 2 |
How can the Minister justify the lack of urgency by HMPPS to address the appalling state of the main mosque roof?
Repeated
Response
I recognise the Board’s concerns around the condition of the main mosque roof, and I am pleased to confirm that funding to repair the roof has been secured for the financial year 2024/2025. In addition to this, a bid to replace the roof has been submitted and will be considered for inclusion in future capital maintenance programmes. |
Other | In progress |
| 3 |
The 2022 Prisoners’ Property Framework has yet to have any positive impact on the transfer of property between prisons. Will HMPPS commit to an evidence-based review of the Framework?
Response
HMPPS note the Board’s continuing concerns about the handling of prisoners’ property. This is an area to which HMPPS is currently giving further attention. Careful consideration will be given to the findings in the recently received IMB national thematic report on how property loss impacts on prisoners, as well as those due to be received from Independent Prisoner Complaint Investigations in the coming months following a thematic review of the property complaints they have received in the last five years. A local review is being completed into the management of Prisoner’s Property at Pentonville to ensure the systems in place are sufficient, and that a quality assurance process is built in to enable early monitoring of any concerns or issues. |
HMPPS | In progress |
| 4 |
The ACCT documentation (revised in 2022) is poorly drafted, overly complicated and many staff are not able to complete it adequately. Will HMPPS commit to an urgent review of this essential, potentially lifesaving, documentation?
Response
The ACCT v6 was piloted in a number of prisons prior to its implementation and feedback from the pilot sites was taken into account before finalising the ACCT v6 document. Any specific concerns about the form can be raised with the Safety Group Lead via stakeholder engagement communications. Locally at HMP Pentonville, robust action is being taken to improve ACCT standards in the prison through the introduction of the ACCT Single Case Management process. Managerial oversight of ACCTs is in place, which includes the completion of wing manager Quality Assurance Checks to ensure the documentation is to the required standard. |
HMPPS | In progress |
| 5 |
Will HMPPS provide extra support to the OMU who are under unsustainable pressure from dealing with the multiple government-imposed measures taken to manage overcrowding alongside their business as usual workload?
Repeated
Response
HMP Pentonville have been in receipt of additional resource, deployed from the Civil Service Surge and Rapid Response Team, to assist with the additional workload and pressure generated from the early release schemes. In addition, HMPPS has sought and received HM Treasury approval for a finite period to provide additional support into any prisons that are experiencing acute pressure within their Offender Management Units, via the non-operational Stability Payment scheme. HMP Pentonville have ringfenced resources within OMU for the past six months to ensure an appropriate focus on Offender Management delivery as necessary. Additional support has also been provided to OMU through deployment of an additional member of the Senior Leadership Team to provide increased managerial oversight. |
HMPPS | Implemented |
| 6 |
Growing numbers of prisoners accused or convicted of sex offences are held in Pentonville. Delivering a meaningful and rehabilitative regime to this vulnerable group safely is very challenging. Will HMPPS commit to delivering greater local support and a national strategy?
Response
HMPPS recognises the increase in the number of People Convicted of Sexual Offences (PCoSOs) and other vulnerable prisoners (VPs). Work has been taking place to expand the number of places offered for this group of prisoners and, since March 2024 c.1000 additional Category C PCoSO/VP places have been brought online through a combination of new accommodation and reconfiguring main accommodation for VPs. Further projects to reconfigure another c.900 places are currently underway and a strategy to deliver more places in the medium to longer term is in the process of being drawn up. Though it is encouraging that the Board has noted they do not have concerns around safety of the PCoSOs population at HMP Pentonville, the Board’s concern to provide the growing number of these prisoners with more space and to continue the work started to improve their regime is recognised. The prison has identified a new wing with additional capacity to continue to support the regime improvements for these prisoners. |
HMPPS | In progress |
| 7 | Will you commit to ringfence the work of the wider safer custody team, including in particular the Violence Reduction Officer and Equality staff? | Governor / Director | |
| 8 | Do you commit to remove the restriction on the number of showers that a prisoner on Basic can take on the grounds that it infringes the prisoner’s right to decency? | Governor / Director | |
| 9 | Will you commit to reinstate auditing of the quality of responses sent by the prison to prisoner complaints? | Governor / Director | |
| 10 | What will you do to resurrect the important key worker scheme? | Governor / Director |
Applications to the IMB
| Category | Current | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (including transfers) | 103 | 70 |
| OMU | 103 | 70 |
| Property | 103 | 70 |
Related inspections & investigations
16 Mar 2026
HMIP · IRP
16 Jul 2025
HMIP · Urgent Notification
30 Jun 2025
HMIP · Unannounced
11 Apr 2023
HMIP · IRP
11 Jul 2022
HMIP · Unannounced
11 Mar 2026
PFD
Peter Campbell · This report is being sent to: HM Prison & Probation Service | Phoenix Futures | Practice Plus Group
Other reports for Pentonville
Report details
- Establishment
- Pentonville
- Type
- Prison · Cat B/C local YOI
- Report year
- 2024
- Published
- 29 October 2024
- Responsible body
- HMP Pentonville
- Recommendations
- 10
- MoJ rating (2024/25)
- 1 — Serious concern
Population
| Population | 1,195 |
| Operational capacity | 1,205 |
| CNA (designed for) | 909 131% |
| Time out of cell | 2.0h/day |
Service providers
Catering
Aramark
Education
Novus
Healthcare
Practice Plus Group
Prisoner escort and custody services
Serco