Our consultation on our Expectations: Criteria for assessing the treatment of and conditions for men in prisons has closed. We will provide feedback to all replies at the end of the review process.

About the revised Expectations

The Expectations have been developed independently by HMI Prisons and set out the criteria by which we inspect outcomes for men in custody. This is the sixth version of the Expectations for men in prison; it has been revised and updated so that we can continue to fulfil our responsibility to deliver independent and objective assessments of outcomes for detainees.

We have chosen to retain the four healthy prison tests of Safety, Respect, Purposeful Activity and Rehabilitation and Release Planning. We have thought carefully about the content of each test and have made changes to better reflect the outcomes we expect for men in prison. For example, the section previously called ‘Behaviour management’ has been changed to ‘Promoting positive behaviour’. We have also incorporated learning from our recent thematic inspections, women’s and court custody inspections to date and other best practice. The sections that have been substantially altered are:

• The ‘Behaviour management’ section becomes ’Promoting positive behaviour’. The indicators in this section have been altered to widen our focus away from the formal incentives scheme.
• The ‘Equality, diversity and faith’ section becomes ‘Fair treatment’. These expectations incorporate learning from our thematic review of the experiences of black prisoners and focus on outcomes rather than process.
• The ‘Health, well-being and social care’ section has been redrafted to reflect changes in practice since 2017 and to incorporate changes in the Care Quality Commission inspection framework.
• The ‘Purposeful activity’ section has been changed to incorporate learning from our thematic reviews on reading and weekends in prison.
• The ‘Rehabilitation and release planning’ section has been substantially refreshed to focus more on outcomes than process.
• Minor changes have been made throughout the document, to reduce duplication and respond to changes in practice since 2017.