Nearly half of Winchester prisoners say they can't wash daily, study finds

The Howard League for Penal Reform has found many prisoners in England and Wales are unable to shower every day, with some children in custody getting only two showers a week.

In one London prison, the proportion of men who said that they could shower daily was just one in six.

It was revealed that at Winchester Prison just 55 per cent of inmates said they could shower daily.

Firefighters at Winchester prison

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The government has said that it wants prisons to be clean and decent, but is ignoring the fact that thousands of children and adult men are smelly and dirty because they cannot get a shower. It’s no good cleaning up prisons if prisoners are not able to keep clean.

“If we want people to be work ready, and ready to reintegrate to lead a good and useful life, people in prison must be at least able to have a shower every morning, eat breakfast and face the day with purpose. Squalor and idleness will not ready people to be law-abiding citizens on release.

“Bold action is needed to reduce the number of people behind bars and ease pressure on a prison system that is failing everyone.”

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

The Howard League analysed the results from prisoner surveys undertaken by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons during each prison’s most recent inspection.

In Belmarsh prison, in south-east London, only one in six men (17 per cent) who responded to the inspectorate’s survey said that they were able to have a shower every day.

The study comes after a report slammed the state of Winchester Prison earlier this year.

An inspection carried out by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) in September found prisoners were locked up for 23 hours a day in “squalid” conditions.

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Among the other findings in the highly critical report were: staff shortages have limited searches, leading to an increase in drugs and contraband; disabled prisoners cannot access basic facilities; a lack of opportunities inside and services outside the prison means prisoners are not well prepared for release; and a restricted regime prevents prisoners from having sufficient time to shower, exercise, make phone-calls or clean their surroundings.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “All prisoners have access to washing facilities every day, and the statistics demonstrate that the vast majority of prisoners have daily access to showers.

“We are committed to improving decency and living conditions across the estate, and the 3,500 additional prison officers we have recently recruited will improve regimes, including access to showers.”

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