HMP/YOI Portland in Dorset was found to have made no improvement in HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ healthy prison tests since its last inspection, with safety again assessed as poor.

Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said that inspectors who visited the prison in Dorset in May 2017 had “expressed guarded optimism about the prison’s future, despite finding some concerning outcomes. At the time, we found outcomes to be insufficiently good across three of our four tests of a healthy prison, and we rated safety as poor.”

“At this inspection [in July and August 2019] we found that outcomes had not improved in any of our tests and, of greatest concern, the prison remained poor in safety.”

The population at Portland was relatively young, with 25% aged under 21 and nearly 58% aged between 21 and 39. Violence had been very high in 2018 but by the 2019 inspection had reduced to the levels seen in 2017, though this was higher than in comparable prisons.

“Initiatives to tackle violence, as well as work by staff to challenge poor behaviour by prisoners, were not good enough,” Mr Clarke. “The situation was not helped by a failure to develop any kind of incentivising culture that might motivate prisoners to engage and behave.” The prison, though, did well in caring for self-isolating prisoners and had achieved an “impressive” reduction in the use of drugs with the use of a detector to scan mail for illicit substances.

Levels of self-harm had doubled since 2017 and were now very high. Inspectors found that case management of men in crisis was generally poor and many experienced protracted periods of lock-up and isolation.

Inspectors observed reasonable personal interaction between staff and prisoners but the paucity of the daily regime limited the ability of staff to engage consistently.

Cleanliness was little improved since 2017, with some cells in a poor condition and many overcrowded. The prison provided reasonable health care, though facilities were poor and prisoners had difficulty accessing the service.

The amount of time prisoners spent out of their cells was poor and, Mr Clarke said, “reflected a limited and restricted regime prone to slippage and cancellations that ultimately undermined so much of the work of the establishment.”

“During roll checks we found a shocking 44% of prisoners locked in cell during the working day.” Inspectors noted that on one general residential unit prisoners could spend nearly 60 hours at a time locked in their cells with no basic entitlements such as showers and telephones. Education and vocational training opportunities were appropriate but there remained too few activity places.

The relative remoteness of Portland – on the Dorset coast at Portland Bill – meant that promoting good family ties remained a challenge. However, the involvement of Barnardo’s in support of family days and through their encouragement of care leavers was impressive. Public protection work was also good and resettlement support for the approximately 40 prisoners released each month was reasonable despite most discharged prisoners returning to other parts of the country.

Overall, Mr Clarke said:

“Our findings at this inspection were troubling. Outcomes had not declined and there was some recent evidence that the impetus and initiative provided by the Prison Group Director was having some beneficial effect. This, however, was not enough. We had concerns about whether local managers had realistic, grounded plans to meet the challenges the prison faced. The prison’s approach to safety was lacklustre, basic standards were not maintained and staff generally needed to have greater expectations of the prisoners they supervised. The prison also needed to re-focus on its primary function as a training and resettlement prison and ensure first that it did the basics right. It urgently needed to ensure that an active and purposeful regime was being delivered and that this met fully the needs of the men held.”

Phil Copple, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Director General of Prisons said:

“HMP Portland has undertaken some remarkable work to tackle gang culture and drugs. While this should help to reduce violence in the longer term, clearly more needs to be done. Since the inspection the prison has established a new safety management team, created a supported living unit to help those at risk of self-harm and is increasing access to education and employment within the prison. Major improvement works are also underway to enhance living conditions, including the installation of new showers and cell refurbishment.”

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Notes to editors
1. The full report, published on 14 January 2020, 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. HMP/YOI Portland is a category C closed prison holding up to 530 adult and young adult male prisoners. Originally built in 1848, the prison is on Portland Bill in Dorset, although those held generally came from a much wider catchment across southern England.

4. HM Inspectorate of Prisons assesses adult prisons against four ‘healthy prison tests’: safety, respect, purposeful activity and rehabilitation and rehabilitation and release planning. There are four assessments: good (4), reasonably good (3), not sufficiently good (2) and poor (1). In both 2017 and 2019 HMP/YOI Portland scored 1-2-2-2 respectively.

5. Notable features from this inspection: nearly two-thirds of the prison’s population were under 30 years old; only 11.5% of prisoners had been at Portland for a year or longer; the level of prisoner self-harm had doubled since the previous inspection; 16% of the population were sharing cells designed to hold one person; a quarter of prisoners were unemployed during the core day; half the prisoners released were from outside Portland’s resettlement catchment area; and only 4% of prisoners said it was easy for family and friends to get to Portland.

6. This unannounced inspection took place between 29 July and 9 August 2019.

7. Please contact John Steele at HM Inspectorate of Prisons on 07880 787452, or at john.steele@justice.gov.uk, if you would like more information.