Lancaster prison deemed 'safe and decent'

An inspection of a prison in Lancaster has found it to be 'safe and decent.' The Chief Inspector of Prisons said more needed to be done to improve the work it did with prisoners to reduce reoffending. Today Nick Hardwick published the report of an unannounced inspection at Lancaster Farms.

A few years ago it re-roled from a local prison holding young adults to a training prison for young adults.

Inspectors found, support on arrival and through the early days was good and most prisoners felt safe with particularly strong work by the mental health and chaplaincy teams.

There were concerns however However, inspectors were concerned to find that the needs of some disabled prisoners were not being met and work with foreign nationals was poor and public protection arrangements were seriously flawed and needed urgent attention.

Nick Hardwick said:

“We felt that good progress had been made in providing a safe and decent prison for the new population held, but that consistent management attention was needed to address weakness in the amount and range of work offered, and in the support provided around the critical areas of offender management and public protection. It was reassuring that senior managers had recognised most of these weaknesses and had credible plans to address the shortfalls.”