HMYOI Brinsford avoided massive increases in violence seen in many other jails but must address a ‘dreadful’ rise in self-harm by young adult prisoners and change a regime in which they are locked in cells for long periods of the day, according to prison inspectors.

Brinsford was inspected in November 2017. Inspectors concluded that “boredom and frustration caused by the poor regime” contributed to continuing high levels of violence. However, Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said it was to the credit of the prison that levels had not risen since the previous inspection in 2015, bucking the national trend of enormous increases.

Despite this, inspectors downgraded the assessment of safety at Brinsford, a jail for young male adults aged 18-21, near Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands, because of concerns about prisoners self-harming. Self-harm had “increased quite dramatically.” There were 554 self-harm incidents between May and October 2017, with a small number of individuals accounting for multiple incidents.

“To understand the dreadful increase in self-harm,” Mr Clarke added, “it is impossible to ignore the potential impact of the regime at Brinsford, which was particularly poor for a population consisting mainly of young adults. For those who were supposedly in full-time employment, five-and-a-half hours out of their cell each day was typical, and was simply not good enough, leaving very little time for access to showers or telephones.

“For those who were unemployed, an hour out of their cell each day was typical. For the prison to make meaningful progress in many other areas, these unacceptable figures must be improved.” Inspectors also noted that some of the meals were too small for young adults.

Mr Clarke said Brinsford “had been on a journey of peaks and troughs in performance.” The lowest trough was in 2013 when inspectors found the prison in urgent need of improvement, with the lowest possible assessment of ‘poor’ in all HMIP’s healthy prison tests. Following that inspection, the prison benefited from new leadership and a very significant injection of resources. At the next inspection, in 2015, one inspector commented that in many ways it resembled a ‘brand new prison’.

“However, since 2015, in common with the rest of the prison estate, Brinsford had felt the impact of reduced resources, and the improvements proved to be fragile,” as the assessments in 2017 showed, Mr Clarke said. “The gleaming paint and brand-new furniture that inspectors saw in 2015 had begun to fade. The lack of new investment, compounded ­– we were told – by frustration with the facilities management contract, meant that there had been an inevitable decline in living conditions. Despite the problems with the facilities management contract, there were some issues that were in the gift of the prison to rectify, particularly around basic cleanliness.”

Overall, Mr Clarke said:

“It was obvious (in 2017) that the current enthusiastic yet realistic leadership at Brinsford was determined to implement successfully the many credible plans that they now had in place. It is to be hoped that their plans will succeed. The improvements we saw in 2015 turned out to have been fragile and built on weak foundations that did not endure…It is not unreasonable to hope that if the plans of the current senior leadership come to fruition, the results of the next inspection will be markedly better; but that is speculation. For the moment, Brinsford is a prison that is working hard to bring about some much-needed improvements, which we hope will prove to be more durable than in the past.”

Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of HM Prison & Probation Service, said:

“As the Chief Inspector acknowledges, the Governor has robust plans in place to improve performance and safety at Brinsford. Constructive activity has increased since the inspection and prisoners have more time out of cells. Systems to support the most vulnerable and to reduce self-harm have been strengthened. Staff and managers are determined to achieve the sustained improvements required and progress will be closely monitored over the coming months.”

– ENDS –

Notes to editors:

1. A copy of the full report, published on 27 March 2018, can be found here.
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. The vast majority of inspections are unannounced. Inspectors undertake in-depth analysis of the four ‘healthy prison’ areas: safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement, as well as following up recommendations from previous inspections.
3. HMYOI Brinsford is situated near Wolverhampton and holds 473 men, the vast majority of whom are young adults aged 18 to 21. Around 10% of the men held there are category C prisoners of all ages.
4. Brinsford opened as a young adult offender institution and remand centre in November 1991. It is on the same site as HMPs Featherstone and Oakwood. In 2008, residential unit 5 was opened. In 2009, the Rowan activities centre opened. Following an unannounced HMIP inspection in November 2013, Brinsford underwent a programme to refurbish residential units 1 to 4. In 2016, the establishment re-roled to a mixed population of young adults and sentenced category C adults.
5. This unannounced inspection took place between 6 – 17 November 2017
6. Please contact John Steele at HM Inspectorate of Prisons on 020 3334 0357 or 07880 787452, or at john.steele@justice.gov.uk, if you would like more information.