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HMP Hull – an impressive culture of reform, but prisoners still locked up for most of the day

Published:

An independent review of progress (IRP)at HMP Hull, a category B prison holding around 900 prisoners, showed an encouraging commitment to improvement, although a lack of action in purposeful activity and health care demonstrated that more needed to be done.

Inspectors from HM Inspectorate of Prisons were following up on their visit to the jail in July 2021, where they found that outcomes for prisoners were not sufficiently good in all four healthy prison areas, having slipped considerably since the previous inspection in 2018. Violence had increased, and inspectors were not confident that use of force was always necessary, proportionate, or safe. A worrying eight self-inflicted deaths and two non-natural deaths had occurred, yet there was no evidence that recommendations by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) had led to improvement in prisoner safety. Inspectors found most prisoners locked in their cells for 23 hours a day.

At this IRP inspectors found encouraging signs at the prison, which held a mix of remanded or newly convicted men from the local community as well as a group of vulnerable prisoners. There had been good or reasonable progress against eight of the 12 HMI Prisons recommendations and Ofsted themes, although there remained insufficient progress against four.

There had been considerable effort by the senior team in response to our recommendation that clear and up-to-date strategies were needed, along with rigorous oversight, to drive improvement.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Insufficient progress had been made in the provision of purposeful activity. Most prisoners spent around 1.5 hours per day unlocked, which included just 30 minutes in the open air. Although a prolonged COVID-19 outbreak and HM Prison and Probation Service restrictions had hindered progress in this area, many of the plans to improve were not being followed. Only around 14% of the population were engaged in off-wing activity at any given time. The gym and workshops were not operating at full capacity.

Inspectors were impressed by improvements in prisoner safety, facilitated by a revised strategy and better use of data. The number of violent incidents, against both staff and prisoners, had fallen sharply by 60% and 55% respectively. Knowledge of the challenge, support, and intervention plan (CSIP) was widespread, thanks to the safety team’s commitment to training staff and use of force was subject to improved scrutiny.

The impressive achievements in managing violence and offending were not supported by improvements in health care provision. Although a monthly ‘safe and secure’ meeting provided greater strategic oversight of the PPO recommendations, inspectors found that health care leaders did not attend. Some health care recommendations had still not been implemented.

The governor, his senior team and staff should be congratulated on what they have achieved so far in addressing the shortcomings we identified at the last inspection. As COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, the renewed confidence in the prison now needs to be translated into a much greater ambition in the amount of time that prisoners are unlocked from their cells.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Notes to editors

  1. Read the HMP Hull independent review of progress report, published on 12 April 2022.
  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 Hull is a category B, inner-city prison holding remanded or newly convicted men from the local community, as well as vulnerable prisoners, many of whom have been convicted of sexual offences. At the time of our visit, the prison had a reduced capacity of around 900 prisoners.
  4. Independent Reviews of Progress (IRPs) began in April 2019. They were developed because Ministers wanted an independent assessment of how far prisons had implemented HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ recommendations following particularly concerning prison inspections. IRPs are not inspections and do not result in new judgements against our healthy prison tests. Rather they judge progress being made against the key recommendations made at the previous inspection. The visits are announced and happen eight to 12 months after the original inspection. They last two and a half days and involve a comparatively small team. Reports are published within 25 working days of the end of the visit. We conduct 15 to 20 IRPs each year. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons selects sites for IRPs based on previous healthy prison test assessments and a range of other factors.
  5. At this Hull IRP we followed up nine of the 22 recommendations from our recent inspection and Ofsted followed up three themes. HM Inspectorate of Prisons judged that there was good progress in two recommendations, reasonable progress in three, and insufficient progress in four. Ofsted found reasonable progress in all three themes.
  6. This IRP visit at HMP Hull took place between 14 and 16 March 2022.
  7. Please email media@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.