Leicestershire prison improving according to report

HM Prison Gartree in Leicestershire is continuing to improve in its work to help reduce the risk of prisoners reoffending, according to a new report.

Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick, published the report of an unannounced inspection of the training prison.

He concluded that it worked effectively to reduce the risk of prisoners reoffending once they are released, but needed to provide more work, training and education places for inmates.

HMP Gartree typically holds men convicted of serious offences who are serving long sentences. It is tasked with reducing the risk of these men reoffending before eventual release.

Inspectors found it was steadily improving when they last assessed the prison in 2010, and the latest report found that improvement was continuing.

They found a number of pleasing elements:

• most prisoners said they felt safe at Gartree

• the number of assaults was low

• despite two self-inflicted deaths since the last inspection, there was a relatively low number of self-harm incidents

• the quality of some of the education and training on offer was good with high qualification success rates

• very good relationships between staff and prisoners ensured that the atmosphere remained stable and calm

• work to reduce the risk of reoffending was underpinned by good relationships and was better than inspectors normally see

• the environment was clean and well maintained

• rehabilitation activities correctly focused on work to address the risk that men might reoffend, there was a good evidence-based approach, and more men than at similar prisons said they had done something to reduce the risk they would reoffend

• Gartree was running some impressive and innovative anti-offending behaviour programmes

But there were some concerns for inspectors:

• there were insufficient activity places for the population and the prison did not make the best use of the places it had

• some of the contract workshops did not have sufficient work to keep prisoners fully occupied

• the range of education on offer was too narrow, though managers had recognised that they needed to improve this and plans were in place

• the new incentives and earned privileges scheme (IEP) had been introduced and prisoners complained, with justification, that they had lost their 'enhanced' status because there were not enough formal opportunities available in which they were now required to demonstrate their positive behaviour

• there were many accounts from prisoners about the availability of drugs and 'hooch' (illicitly brewed alcohol)