Search Results

Sophie Riley, Head of Research, Data and Thematics at HMI Prisons, explains why we have worked with Royal Holloway to make 20 years of prisoner survey data available to other researchers. More people are in prison than ever before in England and Wales. While there is a wealth of information about the kinds of crimes […]

Published: 06 December 2023

Earlier this year, we began publishing easy read summaries of our reports on prison inspections. Tamsin Williamson, Communications and Publications Manager at HMI Prisons, led the project and explains here why this was so important to the organisation. We listen to prisoners all the time. In fact, what detainees tell us runs through all of […]

Published: 07 July 2023

Following International Day of Parents, Martin Kettle considers some of the work by prisons to maintain the vital relationship between parents and children.

Published: 05 June 2023

Of all groups of prisoners, it is children who need the most support to maintain these key relationships. But, rather than enable children to keep in touch with their families, the current system creates unnecessary barriers.

Published: 15 May 2023

On International Women’s Day 2023, Sandra Fieldhouse, Team Leader for Women, explores some of the particular needs of women in custody.

Published: 08 March 2023

During prison inspections the terms ‘looked after’ and ‘care’ feel like cruel jokes to a group of children who have experienced little of either. For many children I speak to it is the failure of adults to provide the stability and love that all children need that leads to offending in the first place.

Published: 17 February 2023

I visited HMP Swinfen Hall last week, a men’s prison in Staffordshire holding mainly young adults, about a quarter of whom are black. Over the course of an afternoon, I saw the work of ‘Food Behind Bars’ (FBB), a small charity which helps prisons to develop more varied menus and teaches prisoners about cooking and nutrition.

Published: 19 January 2023

One of the great privileges of working on ‘Thematic review: The experiences of adult black male prisoners and black prison staff’ was having the chance to listen to people sharing their thoughts about issues that had such deep personal meaning for them. In some ways, the interviews with black staff were the most affecting because they were often more isolated from their peers than prisoners, and few had felt able to talk openly in other forums.

Published: 20 December 2022

I have been thinking about racism in prisons for a long time, and at least since I first worked in one in the late 1990s and saw at first hand the degradation and psychological pain that it can inflict on people in prison. Our new report uncovers on a wider scale the human stories and emotions that both cause and result from racial tensions.

Published: 14 December 2022

In this blog Angus Jones, team leader for inspection of children’s custody, discusses what worked at Parc, and how its achievements set the standard for the care of children in all YOIs.

Published: 21 July 2022