Regime at Hindley 'one of the worst ever seen' with inmates locked in cells for 24 hours

The regime at Hindley Prison was one of the worst of its type to be seen by a watchdog, according to a scathing inspection report.

Inmates at HMP Hindley near Wigan were regularly locked in their cells for more than 24 hours, leaving them unable to attend work or education.

In a report that will re-intensify controversy over the state of prisons in England and Wales, HM Inspectorate of Prisons found levels of violence at the Category C facility to be "very high" for the type of prison.

A survey of prisoners indicated it was "far easier" to get hold of drugs than clean clothes, bed sheets or books.

Residential wings and landings were dirty, with inspectors finding mould and fungus, while prisoners struggled to access basic entitlements such as showers.

Peter Clarke, Chief Inspector of Prisons, said: "The regime at Hindley was one of the worst, and possibly the very worst, that inspectors had ever seen in this type of prison.

Hindley held 515 male inmates at the time of the inspection in the summer.

Locking inmates up for "wholly unreasonable" lengths of time had not altered the fact that nearly half of prisoners said it was "easy" to get hold of illegal drugs, the report said.

New psychoactive substances - previously known as legal highs - were a "major issue" at Hindley.

Prison reform campaigner Mark Leech says it's shocking.

Earlier this month, thousands of officers stopped working in protest amid soaring levels of violence and self-harm behind bars.

The Government has unveiled a wide-ranging blueprint for prison reform, including an additional 2,500 officers and measures to stop drones dropping drugs into jails and to block the illegal use of mobile phones.

Justice minister Sam Gyimah and Michael Spurr, chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, will appear at the Commons Justice Committee today.

In response to the Hindley report, Mr Spurr said: "Since the inspection a detailed improvement plan was developed to address the weaknesses identified by inspectors and this is being closely monitored.

"Progress has been made to improve safety and purposeful activity with more prisoners engaged in high quality work and training opportunities.

"Additional staff have been transferred into the prison to support the improvements required and the governor is working closely with Greater Manchester Police to tackle gang behaviour and violence in the prison."