Two years in the making. Now it’s time to deliver. More than a dozen former prison officers have recently been prosecuted for becoming sexually or financially involved with prisoners. A 20-year-old officer at HMP Five Wells was jailed for three years after being corrupted into smuggling cannabis. A female officer at HMP Wandsworth was jailed […]
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HMP Haverigg’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has published its annual report for 2024–25. The topline numbers are largely positive for a category D open prison holding an overwhelmingly persons convicted of sexual offences’ (PCoSO) population – but read beneath the surface and there are three things that deserve serious attention. 1. The medication failure is […]
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Inspectors have conducted an inspection of HMP Manchester and published their report today. Fifteen months after the Chief Inspector of Prisons invoked the Urgent Notification process at HMP Manchester, inspectors returning to the jail found that it remained in a precarious state. Despite concerted efforts from leaders, a failure to prevent drones delivering illicit items, […]
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By Mark Leech, Editor, The Prisons Handbook for England and Wales HMP Manchester was inspected unannounced in January 2026. The results of that inspection, published 14th April 2026, make difficult reading — not because the findings are surprising, but because so many of them were entirely predictable, and entirely preventable. When Chief Inspector Charlie Taylor […]
On 13 April 2026, HMPPS re-issued its Policy Framework on Psychology Risk Assessment (PRA) Reports. The headline change is an updated report template in Annex A, replacing the SPR-E format that has been in use since PSI 36/2011. Since these reports go before the Parole Board in cases involving some of the most dangerous and […]
HM Inspectorate of Prisons has published its report on the unannounced inspection of an escort and removal flight to France in January 2026 — the second such inspection under the UK–France migration treaty of August 2025. The headline finding? Exactly the same as the last one. The key concern raised in November 2025 — that […]
The Prince of Wales has received millions of pounds of public money from an abandoned prison that was closed due to toxic gas levels. The Duchy of Cornwall, the estate which provides a private income for Prince William, owns HMP Dartmoor and has leased it to the Ministry of Justice for £1.5 million a year since […]
The Ministry of Justice has published two bodies of research in recent months that together make a compelling case for what works. The first is a randomised controlled trial across four prisons, published December 2025. Prisoners on Incentivised Substance Free Living wings were 31% less likely to be involved in assault, 31% less likely to […]
Monthly statistics on the population in custody of children and young people within secure children’s homes (SCHs), secure training centres (STCs) and young offender institutions (YOIs). This includes those aged under 18 and 18 year olds. Some 18 year olds remain in the secure estate for children and young people if they only have a […]