A prison in London has been deemed unsafe and its conditions “inhumane,” a watchdog has reported.
The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of HMP Wandsworth said there was a shortage of staff, rising number of assaults, and overcrowding issues.
The board members made 642 visits to the prison and reviewed the conditions from June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023.
It found that the percentage of available officers rarely reached above 50 percent. The staff struggled to provide a properly functioning regime. High staff turnover and lack of experience among officers were among the concerns, the IMB reported.
The number of assaults at HMP Wandsworth over the reporting period rose by 25 percent. On average there were over ten assaults on staff per week, which resulted in a 49 percent increase in the use of force.
The review of HMP Wandsworth took place before the alleged escape of Daniel Khalife from the prison on Sept. 6 by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery lorry.
Prisons minister Damian Hinds has confirmed that eighty prison officers did not attend their shifts on the day Khalife escaped from HMP Wandsworth.
“Recent events at Wandsworth have demonstrated the shortcomings of the prison system that the IMB has been highlighting repeatedly for many years. Prisoners are being failed and most have a severely reduced chance of rehabilitation upon release,” IMB Chair, Tim Aikens, said on Wednesday.
The number of prisoners the HMP Wandsworth can hold without being overcrowded is 961. The IMB reported that at the end of the reporting period there were 1,584 prisoners accommodated by the facility.
“We are told there is significant investment in the prison system, but we see little evidence of this in Wandsworth,” Mr. Aikens said.
The IMB report asked the government about its plans to redress the human, financial, and physical shortage of resources at HMP Wandsworth.
This comes amid the government’s prison expansion programme, which includes expanding and refurbishing 16 prison sites in the UK. The aim is to create 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s.
Mr. Chalk said that the government was doing more than any since the Victorian era to expand prison capacity.
The IMB reported a dire state of the HMP Wandsworth Victorian buildings, where there have been only cosmetic changes to the fabric.
Prisoners repeatedly had no heating or hot water during the winter months, the watchdog said. There were only 11 shower stalls for 265 men and an insufficient number of kits for prisoners to change.
The report also mentioned regular flooding of cells that would disrupt whole wings.
The management of the prison struggled to prevent illicit items, including drugs, alcohol, and mobile phones. HMP Wandsworth is severely limited in what staff can do about it, warned the watchdog.
It was easy for prisoners to access contraband through a variety of methods, including drones.
“Prison walls are close to exercise areas, enabling banned substances to be thrown over the walls and drones to access windows on the residential blocks,” the report said.
The latest Ministry of Justice figures showed a total prison population in England and Wales of 87,793. Meanwhile, the maximum capacity was at 88,561.
The prison population has been estimated to grow in England and Wales to between 93,000 and 106,000 by 2027.
