The inspection took place in October last year and identified 13 concerns
A Cambridgeshire prison has been rated as ‘poor and ‘inadequate’ in certain areas. The report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons follows an unannounced inspection of HMP Whitemoor, in October last year.
Overall, the inspection was “positive and encouraging”, with the prison rated ‘good’ for safety and “reasonably good” for respect and preparing inmates for release.
The inspection of the prison, near March, identified 13 key concerns, four of which the report says should be treated as priorities and require immediate attention.
The report said: “Whitemoor was an improved prison, doing a difficult job reasonably well. We leave the jail with a number of priorities and concerns that we have identified and which we hope will assist further improvements.”
One of those priority concerns was that the daily routine and regime were “inadequate”. The report said that prison staff told them this was due to staffing shortfalls, and high level of absence across all grades. The report also identified that “too many prisoners were locked up during the working day” as another issue. “Critical work” is needed in areas including education and skills, hospital appointments, and suspicion drug testing which were reportedly not delivered consistently.
The report said: “These issues were also symptomatic of wider systemic challenges, including recruitment and retention difficulties, which were forecast to worsen in the coming months.”
However, inspectors also said: “Despite these challenges, we observed much that was positive in the prison.”
HMP Whitemoor is a high security prison, which is for category A and B male prisoners. More than 80 percent of these prisoners have been assessed as presenting a “high or very high risk of serious harm”. At the time of the report, there were 455 men being held, with nearly all serving sentences in excess of 10 years.
“Limited interventions and a lack of purposeful activity made it difficult for prisoners to demonstrate a reduction in risk”, the report said, and “too few” were able to progress in their sentence, following a repeat concern identified in their previous inspection in 2022.
According to the report, 58 percent of the 455 prisoners held at the time of the inspection had a disability or learning difficulty, and the inspection found that attendance across education, skills and work were too low and listed among the four priority concerns that require immediate attention.
The Ministry of Justice emphasised that new education contracts provide a clearer specification for the delivery of classroom activities and vocational training to ensure job readiness for prisoners on release. They have also launched a new national careers service to help prisoners understand their options and created sector-specific training with guaranteed job offers on release.
The report also raised concerns of cleanliness standards, stating that there was “little accountability, and staff lacked the motivation to enforce good standards”. Cleaning equipment was often found in “poor condition” and held in “dirty cupboards”, as well as no regular inspections by wing leaders.
The inspection, carried out by Deputy Chief inspector, Martin Lomas, alongside others, found that waiting times for external health appointments were too long and frequently cancelled due to a lack of officer escorts and there were “significant” delays in assessing and transferring patients to secure hospital beds under the Mental Health Act. The public report states that one patient reportedly waited 18-months despite undergoing multiple assessments.
A spokesperson for Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, physical and mental health providor for the prison, said: “We are committed to providing safe, high-quality healthcare services and, as a learning organisation, we recognise the importance of continually improving our provision for the benefit of all our service users.
“We have worked with HM Inspectorate of Prisons to address all the areas of concern highlighted for our attention in the inspection report, and the report acknowledges that these actions have been completed.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We welcome the inspectorate’s recognition that HMP Whitemoor has improved and are pleased to see praise for our dedicated staff.
“This Government inherited a prisons system in crisis, overcrowded and with significant staffing shortages. We are addressing this by recruiting more officers, deploying them where they’re most needed, and expanding training and education for prisoners.”