HMIP Reports on HMP Eastwood Park

The prison was given an inspection in October 2022, the full report can be read at the Ministry of Justice web site, just follow the links below. In their latest report the inspectors said:

“Eastwood Park is a women’s prison in Gloucestershire that held 348 prisoners at the time of our inspection. Like the other closed prisons in the women’s estate, it holds a range of prisoners from those on remand to others who are serving indeterminate sentences or life.

In our survey 83% of women told us that they were suffering from mental health difficulties and many were caught in the cycle of homelessness, drug or alcohol misuse and offending. This made for a challenging environment which required highly skilled professionals to provide support for those in their care. In recent years, the prison had struggled to recruit and retain enough staff and at the time of our inspection a third of officer and operational support grades were not available. These shortages were set to worsen with the imminent withdrawal of detached duty staff who had been supporting the prison in recent months.

The effect of staff shortages meant that the already curtailed regime was often further restricted and some of the consistency of provision and support that was essential in providing for this population was not in place. Women’s prisons thrive when staff have time to build strong, professional relationships with the prisoners; at Eastwood Park, despite the dedication of many officers, this was sometimes just not possible.

The governor – who had been in post for nine months – and her relatively inexperienced, but enthusiastic senior team, had assessed the current state of the prison and had clear plans in place that showed a determination to address the many challenges. Leaders, however, had not developed clear enough measures for assessing progress against priorities, and the use of data more generally required improvement. For example, there was no central record or oversight of the number of women who had been segregated, the reasons why or for how long.

The treatment and conditions of women located on houseblock 4 were described by one experienced inspector as the worst that he had seen. The criteria for why women were sent to the unit were unclear and its role was not properly established or overseen. In effect it housed, in segregation, women who could not be placed elsewhere in the jail, due to their mental health needs or associated behaviour. The cells were appalling, dilapidated and covered in graffiti, one was blood-splattered, and some had extensive scratches on the walls which reflected the degree of trauma previous residents must have experienced. No prisoner should be held in such conditions, let alone women who were acutely unwell and in great distress. I was also deeply concerned about the welfare of the staff who worked there; they were dedicated and courageous, but were not adequately trained or qualified to support the women on the unit. They received no clinical supervision, despite being exposed to prisoners in great distress, some of whose levels of self-harm were extreme. Specialist input from others had dropped off over time and the therapeutic ethos had simply disappeared. Neither the leadership team nor, in their recent visits, the prison group director’s staff, had noticed the severity of this situation.

Across the prison, we saw a need for more staff training in understanding how to support the specific needs of women prisoners, and though we saw many excellent interactions during the week, women told us that often they felt dismissed or ignored. Some prisoners told us that this was one factor in the high and rising levels of self-harm in the prison and increasing levels of violence towards officers. There were also difficulties for women in getting some of the most basic requirements. For example, parcels from family members took a long time to clear, women could not buy clothes from within the prison and I met one prisoner who had to borrow a bra from her cellmate because nothing was available. These problems are not exclusive to Eastwood Park and it is an ongoing indictment of the prison service that women are so often unable to get suitable underwear or clothing and have to rely on wearing tracksuits and other items bought from the male estate.

In the months following the inspection, houseblock 7, in which women were held in more open conditions, was due to close due to fire safety risks. While there were plans to build accommodation for these prisoners outside the gate, leaders will need to consider what can be done to make sure that in the meantime, there remain opportunities for women to be motivated and rewarded for the progress they have made with their sentences. More generally, while the regime had opened up and women were spending more time out of their cells, far too few were involved in work, training or education, and the education provider was not doing enough to make sure that the curriculum was suitable or that the work on offer led to useable qualifications.

We have given Eastwood Park our lowest grade for safety. This is very unusual for a women’s prison, but the gaps in care and the lack of support for the most vulnerable and distressed women were concerning. I am hopeful that the governor and her staff will use this inspection as a springboard for addressing the issues we have raised and to improve outcomes at the prison. There is much good work being done at the jail, such as in the Nexus unit for women with personality disorders or the input from the Nelson Trust which provides support with resettlement. However, much needs to be done in the coming months. Progress will also depend on the prison being able to retain staff and the prison service recruiting enough officers to enable the governor to deliver her priorities, including some very basic aspects of treatment for those in her care.

Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
December 2022

 

The inspectors also provided a list of their key concerns

What needs to improve at HMP/YOI Eastwood Park

During this inspection we identified 14 key concerns, of which six should be treated as priorities. Priority concerns are those that are most important to improving outcomes for prisoners. They require immediate attention by leaders and managers.

Leaders should make sure that all concerns identified here are addressed and that progress is tracked through a plan which sets out how and when the concerns will be resolved. The plan should be provided to HMI Prisons.

Priority concerns

  1. Acute staff shortages often made the delivery of even a very restricted daily regime unreliable, leaving women with far too little time out of cell.
  2. There had been two self-inflicted deaths since our last inspection and rates of self-harm were very high and increasing. Many women told us they did not feel well cared for.
  3. Some women were acutely mentally unwell. A small number were living in residential unit 4, an appalling environment that failed to provide therapeutic support for them or the staff working there.
  4. The number of times force had been used against women had increased significantly and we were not confident it was always used as a last resort.
  5. Leaders had been too slow to reintroduce support to help women maintain relationships with their children, families and significant others.
  6. Leaders and managers did not provide enough spaces in education, skills and work to meet women’s needs.

Key concerns

  1. There was a lack of oversight of women segregated in the main residential units and other women were unnecessarily locked in their cells when segregated women were unlocked.
  2. Women were very frustrated by the lack of access to everyday essentials, and they found it difficult to have very basic requests met.
  3. Patients requiring a transfer to specialist mental health inpatient services waited far too long for a bed.
  4. Leaders and managers did not make sure that the available English and mathematics spaces were used effectively to meet the needs of the prison population.
  5. Leaders and managers did not offer appropriate qualifications in work and education.
  6. Remanded women had very little support to help them manage important resettlement issues on arrival at the prison.
  7. The imminent closure of the more open unit 7 meant women had too few progression opportunities.
  8. Public protection measures were weak in some key areas. For example, evidence from phone monitoring was not used effectively and appropriate restrictions on contact with victims and children were not always implemented consistently.

Return to Eastwood Park

To read the full reports, go to the Ministry of Justice site or follow the links below: