HMP Swaleside – regime buckling under acute staffing shortages

Read the report: HMP Swaleside independent review of progress

Inspectors returning to HMP Swaleside, a high security prison on the Isle of Sheppey, found that the prison had made little progress on the recommendations from October 2021. At the disappointing 2021 inspection, safety and purposeful activity were judged not sufficiently good, and rehabilitation and release planning was ‘poor’, the lowest grade.

Commenting on the findings, Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, said:

“The overall message from this independent review of progress was that no meaningful progress had been made in addressing staff shortfalls, which meant staffing was now at crisis point and was having an impact of on all aspects of the regime.”

Although analysis of safety data had improved, they were yet to have a significant impact on the level of violence, which remained high, and both staff and prisoners reported feeling unsafe in the prison. Self-harm had reduced significantly, but the standard of care documentation for those at risk of suicide and self-harm remained poor. There had been four self-inflicted deaths in the eight months since our last inspection with a fifth two months after this review.

Staff shortages meant that time out of cell was severely limited, made worse by regular delays in the regime. Ofsted, following up on four themes from the 2021 inspection, found that insufficient progress had been made in all of them. There were long waiting lists for activities and prisoners’ goals or career plans were not considered in allocating them to activities. Education and workshops were often closed due to the staffing crisis, and in the past three months, inspectors found that education classes had been cancelled more often than they had taken place.

Inspectors spoke to officers who were exhausted, under pressure, and on the brink of resignation. The crisis could be felt on the wings, and Mr Taylor pressed the Ministry of Justice to “take immediate action”:

“The scale of the task is huge, but I strongly urge leaders at all levels to find solutions. Without continued vigour, outcomes for the prison and the public may deteriorate even further. We understand that just last week the prison had to call for specialist help to contain serious concerted indiscipline. This situation cannot be allowed to continue.”

Notes to editors

1. Read the HMP Swaleside independent review of progress report, published on 5 October 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 Swaleside opened in 1988 with four wings, A–D. E wing was built in 1998, and F wing in 1999. G wing was added in 2009, and H wing in 2010.
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 Swaleside IRP we followed up 13 of the recommendations from our recent inspection and Ofsted followed up four themes. HM Inspectorate of Prisons judged that there was good progress in two recommendations, reasonable progress in four, insufficient progress in four and no meaningful progress in three. Ofsted found insufficient progress in all four themes.
6. A report on the most recent full inspection of HMP Swaleside is available on our website, as is the accompanying media release.
7. This IRP visit at HMP Swaleside took place between 18 and 20 July 2022.
8. Please email media@hmiprisons.gov.uk if you would like more information.