Prisons in England and Wales: HMIP Healthy Prison Test Outcomes
Latest: Prisons in England and Wales HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) Healthy Prison Test Outcomes
View the latest updated league table of all prisons in England and Wales — public and private — ranked by aggregate Healthy Prison Test scores from the most recent full inspection reports, Urgent Notifications and Independent Review of Progress (IRP).
Scores are converted to numeric values: Good (4), Reasonably Good (RG, 3), Not Sufficiently Good (NSG, 2), Poor (1).
Superscript numerals in table entries refer to IRP footnotes listed below the table.
This universal table, with its striking data, is unique; why?
Because fundamentally prisoners whatever their sentence type, category, age or gender have exactly the same needs and rights as each other.
Yes, prisons have different categories/functions; a dispersal prison operates in a fundamentally different world from a category D open prison preparing men for release, or a women’s reception prison dealing with acute mental health crisis on arrival, or a young offender institution managing adolescents – that goes without saying.
And the operational pressures, population demographics, staffing requirements and success metrics differ across those categories too – but this table stands up to scrutiny because the HMIP Healthy Prison Tests don’t measure whether a prison is achieving things specific to its category/function.
HMIP measures four fundamental outcomes that apply to every human being in custody:
- Are they safe?
- Are they treated with respect?
- Are they able to engage in activity to benefit them?
- Are they being prepared for release?
Those are not category or function specific tests; they are absolute irreducible minimums because a Cat A prisoner has exactly the same right to be safe as a Cat D prisoner. A remand prisoner has exactly the same right to respectful treatment as a sentenced one. A woman has exactly the same need and right to receive purposeful activity as a man; and what’s more, HMIP explicitly designed its Healthy Prison Tests to be universal.
The Inspectorate publishes separate ‘Expectations’ documents for men’s prisons, women’s prisons, YOIs and immigration centres — so the benchmark is adjusted for context.
That’s why the four tests do (and must) apply everywhere, and to everyone.
It is what makes this fascinating table totally unique — and it is updated as each new report is issued.
View the latest HMIP Healthy Prison Test Outcome >>
(c) Prisons Org UK