The prison was given an Independent Review of Progress in June 2026, the full report can be read on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website, just follow the links below. In their latest report the inspectors said:
HMP Featherstone is a category C training and resettlement prison for adult men near Wolverhampton, run by HM Prison and Probation Service. A full inspection in September/October 2025 had found it holding 658 prisoners against an in-use certified normal capacity of 672, and rated safety, respect and purposeful activity all Not Sufficiently Good, all declines from 2022, with preparation for release unchanged at Not Sufficiently Good. This Independent Review of Progress, carried out in June 2026, checks progress against the concerns raised then rather than re-scoring the four healthy prison tests.
Inspectors found good progress on safeguarding, day-to-day processes, social care and public protection. Self-harm had fallen by 54% compared with the same period before the 2025 inspection, there had been no further self-inflicted deaths, and the proportion of prisoners testing positive for drugs had fallen from 24% to 19%.
Progress on staff-prisoner relationships and reducing reoffending was reasonable, but inspectors found insufficient progress on tackling drug availability and on food portions and mealtimes, and no meaningful progress on the prison’s ageing infrastructure, with persistent leaks and equipment failures still affecting daily life.
Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
July 2026
To read the full reports, go to the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website or follow the links below:
| Independent Review of Progress report, HM Inspectorate of Prisons review of progress at HMP Featherstone (1–3 June 2026, published 13 July 2026) | Inspection report (PDF), Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Featherstone by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (23 September–9 October 2025, published 12 January 2026) |
| Easy read summary of the 2025 inspection report | Action plan, HM Prison and Probation Service action plan in response to the 2025 inspection of HMP Featherstone |