HMP Hollesley Bay - A good resettlement prison

HMP Hollesley Bay had built on its strengths and made progress, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, publishing the report of an unannounced inspection of the open prison in Suffolk.

HMP Hollesley Bay was previously inspected in 2009, when there had been an influx of prisoners with very little time left to serve. The population had changed again so that during this inspection, there were fewer short-termers and a greater number of men serving indeterminate sentences.

The establishment had made sufficient progress against recommendations in each main area: safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement.
Inspectors were pleased to find that:

  • reception and induction processes were effective and routine stripsearching on arrival had ceased;
  • there was an active drug strategy and a low rate of positive random drug tests;
  • some unnecessary security restrictions had been eased;
  • the work of staff was, on the whole, appreciated by prisoners andpersonal officer work was generally good;
  • health care provision continued to be good;
  • the level and quality of purposeful activity had been maintained and the number of vocational training places had increased; and
  • managers had a good strategic grasp of resettlement issues in a changing population.

However, inspectors were concerned to find that:

  • it was clear that prisoners found some staff very difficult to relate to;
  • the management of equality and diversity had improved but more work was needed to support some prisoners;
  • while a reasonable number of prisoners were working outside the prison, the remote location and restrictions on how far prisoners could travel to work limited the opportunities to do so; and
  • some offending behaviour programmes had been withdrawn, leaving no scope for prisoners to consolidate earlier learning through booster programmes before release.

Nick Hardwick said:

“Hollesley Bay had built on the strengths observed in our previous inspection, and made sufficient progress against our recommendations in each main area. It was a safe place, and some unnecessary security restrictions had been eased. A new dispersed offender supervisor system had made a promising start; its continuing success depends on the availability of training, support and time for wing-based staff to carry out this work.”

Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), said:

“I am pleased that the Chief Inspector has highlighted the strengths and progress being made at Hollesley Bay.

“The work the prison does means that the public are better protected.

“By focusing on safety, reducing substance misuse and maintaining purposeful activity, staff are contributing to the resettlement of
prisoners and to reducing the chance that they will re-offend on release.”

Download a copy of this press release (36 kB)

Notes to editors:

  1. A copy of the report can be found on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website
  2. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment, and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
  3. This unannounced short follow-up inspection was carried out from 17-19 January 2012.
  4. HMP Hollesley Bay is a category D open prison for adult and young adult men.
  5. Please contact Jane Parsons in HMI Prisons Press Office on 0207 035 2123 or 07880 787452 if you would like more information or to request an interview with Nick Hardwick.