The prison was given a full inspection in May 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 Risley is a category C resettlement prison in Cheshire, run by HM Prison and Probation Service, now holding exclusively men convicted of sexual offences after a change of role in 2025, with 1,013 prisoners against a temporary operational capacity of 1,034. Inspectors rated safety Good, an improvement from reasonably good, respect improved to reasonably good from not sufficiently good, and purposeful activity improved to not sufficiently good from Poor, while preparation for release remained not sufficiently good, unchanged. Inspectors described a generally stable and optimistic prison making progress despite recent upheaval, though too many prisoners were still not engaged in meaningful activity.
Violence continued to fall, with use-of-force incidents down from 397 to 256 over the year and adjudications down 42% since the last inspection, while segregation was used sparingly and well managed. Drug test positivity was low at 4%, mostly linked to misuse of prescribed medication rather than illicit drugs, and mental health provision was rated strong. Wings and serveries were rated clean well above comparator averages, 80% of prisoners said staff treated them with respect, and a co-located key worker team within the offender management unit was singled out for good progression outcomes.
Inspectors nonetheless raised six priority concerns, including applications and complaints systems that were not working effectively, with only just over half of prisoners finding complaints easy to make. Ageing infrastructure was undermining decency, with persistent lighting and heating problems and clinical areas falling below infection-control standards. Ethnic minority prisoners reported far worse outcomes than white prisoners on respectful treatment, and a third of staff said they had witnessed inappropriate behaviour towards prisoners, including derogatory comments about their offences. Only 42% of prisoners were engaged in education or work during the working day, substance misuse group work had not run all year, and of nearly a thousand releases in the past year, 123 prisoners left homeless and just 47 were in employment six weeks later.
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:
| Inspection report, Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Risley by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (11–21 May 2026, published 24 August 2026) | Easy read summary of the 2026 inspection report |