HMP Everthorpe - a safe and decent prison, but more purposeful activity needed
HMP Everthorpe needed to improve work, education and training opportunities for prisoners, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, publishing the report of an unannounced short follow-up inspection of the east Yorkshire training jail.
HMP Everthorpe was last inspected in 2009. This inspection found the establishment was generally safe and decent, but while progress had been made in relation to safety and respect, some aspects required ongoing attention. Insufficient progress had made in purposeful activity and in work to help prisoners resettle back into communities on release.
Inspectors were pleased to find that:
- management oversight of substance misuse had improved;
- major improvements to health services had been made, although some aspects of governance needed improving;
- a new violence reduction policy had been developed, but needed to be further embedded;
- significant progress had been made to promote diversity and there was a clear and well developed strategy; and
- offender management and the range of offending behaviour programmes were adequate, and some improvements to tackle drugs and alcohol use had been made.
However, inspectors were concerned to find that:
- although consultation with prisoners about suicide and self-harm arrangements had improved, the lack of a definition of what constituted a serious incident of self-harm meant inspectors were not fully assured that all such incidents were investigated;
- time out of cell had reduced, with no analysis of why this had happened;
- there were too few work, training and activity places, compounded by poor use of those available;
- cells designed for one person were still being used for two and were too small;
- a long period of major change had led to weak governance of resettlement; and
- too many prisoners were waiting for specialist housing advice, and too many were released without suitable accommodation.
Nick Hardwick said:
‘Overall, sufficient progress against the recommendations we made in 2009 had been made in relation to safety and respect. However, more needed to be done to make some important improvements to purposeful activity and resettlement, which given HMP Everthorpe’s role as a training prison, are clear priorities.’
Notes to Editors:
- A copy of the report can be found here. (171 kB)
- 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.
- This unannounced short follow-up inspection was carried out from 19-21 March 2012.
- HMP Everthorpe is a category C training prison for male adults.
- Please contact Jane Parsons at HMI Prisons on 07880 787552 if you would like more information or to request an interview with Nick Hardwick.