Winchester prison is 'one of the most violent prisons in the country'

Inspectors from the Prison Inspectorate have issued a hard-hitting report today after an unannounced inspection in February.

Conditions are little-changed since its previous visit in 2019 and chronic problems remain including violence, recruitment and poor facilities. Senior managers have been criticised for failing to show "show enough real, sustained grip".

It is the latest in a string of adverse reports including by the the prison's own watchdogs, the Independent Monitoring Board.

The new report said: "At our last inspection in 2019, we found a prison struggling with high levels of violence and which was providing prisoners with very little time out of cell. On our return, we were disappointed to find that – despite some limited progress – our healthy prison test scores remained the same. Winchester continued to be one of the most violent prisons in the country."

Chief Inspector Charlie Taylor added: "Winchester remained one of the least safe prisons in the country. Incidents were not always investigated to help leaders gain a full understanding of the underlying causes of violence to enable them to devise a responsive strategy. Staff were unfamiliar with some key processes and the culture of the prison did not motivate good behaviour."

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The prison's work at education and rehabilitation is being hampered by a lack of staff and difficulty in recruiting, says the report.

It added: "While there had been impressive work to reduce the risk posed by some of the most violent prisoners, there was no meaningful strategy to understand and address the causes of violence within the main population.

"Most prisoners were locked in their cells for 22.5 hours a day, and even more at the weekend.

"The enthusiastic education managers were very frustrated by the prison’s inability to get prisoners to classrooms and workshops, both consistently and on time.

"This made it impossible to plan work programmes because they did not know who, if anyone, was going turn up each day.

"There was no assessment of the skills of prisoners when they came into the prison, which meant that those who had been employed in the community were not provided with suitable work."

On the staffing difficulties, the report stated: "The prison had struggled to recruit and retain enough staff and this problem was directly affecting the day-to-day running of the jail, where at times there were simply not enough officers to ensure even the most basic regime for prisoners.

"Officers were frequently cross deployed from the gym and the offender management unit which meant access to these services was further reduced.

"Leaders will need to develop an understanding of why so many officers (in an affluent part of the country with low levels of unemployment) are leaving the prison and put in place some meaningful support to help retain good staff members during their first year of service."

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The report was not entirely negative: "Inspectors were frequently impressed by many of the officers and staff, who showed great skill and dedication in their work, despite the many challenges that they had faced over the last two years.

"Leaders had managed to keep visits going during the latest lockdown and this was a real achievement, given how frequently the prison was short-staffed.

"There is no doubt that the pandemic has limited some of the progress at Winchester, but leaders have failed to show enough real, sustained grip.

"If it is to improve from this disappointing inspection, the prison will need leaders to be active and visible on the wings, and set clear, measurable targets for improvement so that prisoners are safer, kept in decent conditions and given enough to do during the day."

Winchester is a local category B prison with about 500 inmates mainly from the Hampshire area. It was built in the mid-19th century.

The are two Category C annexes, West Hill and Hearn units next to the jail has had a better report but the inspectors said: "We found a group of relatively low-risk prisoners who were bored and frustrated by the lack of activity, while workshops were underused and the gardens were out of bounds.

"There is huge scope to develop the offer for these prisoners and create a thriving, productive environment which will support sentence progression and provide an incentive to prisoners on the main site."

There have been calls, including by former MP Mark Oaten, for the prison to be vacated and redeveloped with proceeds from the land sale going to build a new prison.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “The pandemic created huge challenges for HMP Winchester but the restrictions in place to keep staff, inmates and the wider community safe from COVID have now been lifted so that greater focus can be put on training and rehabilitation to cut crime.”

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