HMP Stocken provided good work, training and education for prisoners, but wasn’t safe enough, said Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons. Today he published the report of an unannounced inspection of the training prison in Rutland.

HMP Stocken, at the time of its inspection, held 672 adult men. The prison performed its training function well but other areas needed to be strengthened.

Inspectors were pleased to find that:

• most prisoners had a good amount of time out of their cells;
• the prison had an effective partnership with Milton Keynes college and together they provided a good range of work, training and education with sufficient full-time places to meet the needs of the population;
• there were good relationships between teachers and students, prisoners behaved well in classes and workshops and effective use was made of peer mentors: together they helped prisoners to achieve;
• most communal areas and cells were clean and in good condition;
• there was a good range of offending behaviour courses available and there was good work to help prisoners maintain or develop healthy relationships with their families;
• public protection was delivered well, and
• the care for prisoners at risk of suicide or self-harm was good and there had been no self-inflicted deaths in the prison for a long time.

However, inspectors were concerned to find that:

• the number of violent incidents was high, although it had reduced over the past year, and there had been a number of serious incidents before the inspection which had culminated in a serious disturbance that resulted in the closure of a wing;
• the availability of new psychoactive substances appeared to be a significant factor, and half of the prisoners surveyed said it was easy to get drugs in the prison;
• some poor relationships between uniformed staff and prisoners created a significant weakness and undermined dynamic security;
• forty per cent of prisoners said they had been victimised by staff and inspectors saw distant and dismissive behaviour from some staff;
• prisoners from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, Muslim prisoners and prisoners with disabilities reported more negatively than the rest of the population;
• offender management did not sufficiently drive individual prisoners’ sentence plans and was not central to the work of the prison; and
• there was a large OASys (the main risk assessment and sentence planning tool) backlog and although offender supervisors were diligent, they received inadequate supervision.

Nick Hardwick said:

“HMP Stocken’s very good purposeful activity pulled the rest of the prison up and provided good outcomes for most prisoners by equipping them with the skills they needed to get and hold down a job after release. However, Stocken had significant weaknesses and determined efforts will need to be made to address them if they are not to threaten the prison as a whole. The prison is not safe enough and it has a significant drugs problem. The systems and processes in place to tackle this are mostly appropriate but their effectiveness is undermined by some poor staff attitudes.

“Prisoners with protected characteristics report more negatively than the population as a whole and much of the prison’s own monitoring data supports their concerns. Offender management is not sufficiently central to the work of the prison and so good work, learning and skills is not properly linked to clear plans to address attitudes and behaviour. The prison needs to respond effectively to these weaknesses if the good work it does is to be sustained.”

Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service, said:

“I am pleased the Inspectorate-rated outcomes for Stocken are ‘Good’ for Purposeful Activity and ‘Reasonably Good’ for both Respect and Resettlement. These positive findings demonstrate the focus the prison has given to supporting effective rehabilitation and the Governor and his team deserve credit for their commitment and achievements in these critical areas which are essential to reducing reoffending and cutting crime.

“There is more to be done to tackle the impact of illicit drug use and to improve safety – but as the report makes clear overall violence levels have fallen over the last 12 months and achieving further sustained improvements through better dynamic security and more effective offender management is a priority for the Governor and his staff.”

 

Notes to editors:    

1. Read the report.
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. HMP Stocken is a category C training prison.
4. This unannounced inspection was carried out from 29-30 June and 6-10 July 2015.
5. Please contact Jane Parsons at HMI Prisons press office on 020 3681 2775 or 07880 787452 if you would like more information or to request an interview.