The prison was given an Independent Review of Progress in March 2025, 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 Brixton is a category C resettlement prison in south London, run by HM Prison and Probation Service. A full inspection in June 2024 found it holding 740 prisoners against a baseline certified normal capacity of just 530, describing it as the most overcrowded category C prison in the country, and rated safety Not Sufficiently Good, respect Not Sufficiently Good (an improvement on the previous Poor rating), purposeful activity Poor, and preparation for release Poor, a decline on the previous inspection.
That 2024 inspection found staff-prisoner relationships had genuinely improved, with 77% of prisoners reporting respectful treatment by staff, up from 58% previously, alongside strengthened reception and induction, well-integrated healthcare, and good food quality. But severe overcrowding undermined much of the rest: two-thirds of prisoners were held in cells designed for one person, sanitation was poor with evidence of rats, and offender management was badly understaffed, with some prisoners waiting five to ten months for their first contact with a prison offender manager and effectively no one benefiting from release on temporary licence. Nearly a third of prisoners reported feeling unsafe, drug test positivity was more than twice the national target, and education was rated inadequate.
This Independent Review of Progress, carried out in March 2025, does not re-score the four healthy prison tests but checks progress against the concerns raised in 2024. Inspectors found good or reasonable progress in five areas, including improved education staffing and better-qualified teachers, a significant reduction in the backlog of drug-related intelligence and lower positive test rates, and improved public protection staffing and training. However, seven concerns showed no or insufficient progress, among them persistently high violence, severe overcrowding with limited time out of cell, continuing gaps in education quality and activity attendance, and staffing shortages in middle management. Leaders were reported to be working toward reclassifying the prison to category B status, while resettlement and rehabilitation opportunities continued to lag behind.
Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
April 2025
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 Brixton (3–5 March 2025, published 22 April 2025)
- Inspection report (PDF), Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Brixton by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (4–21 June 2024, published 24 September 2024)
- Action plan, HM Prison and Probation Service action plan in response to the 2024 inspection of HMP Brixton
- Independent Review of Progress report (2023), HM Inspectorate of Prisons review of progress at HMP Brixton (21–23 November 2022, published 9 January 2023)
- HMP Brixton, Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Brixton (14 & 21–25 March 2022, published 30 June 2022)