The prison was given a full inspection in April and May 2022, 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 Spring Hill is a category D open training and resettlement prison in Buckinghamshire, run by HM Prison and Probation Service and forming part of a two-establishment cluster with the neighbouring HMP Grendon under one governor, holding 227 men against an operational capacity of 241. Inspectors rated safety Good and respect and preparation for release both reasonably good, all unchanged, while purposeful activity declined to not sufficiently good from reasonably good. Inspectors said outcomes had stayed the same in three of the four healthy prison areas and declined only in purposeful activity.
Staff-prisoner relationships had improved markedly since the previous inspection, with 85% of prisoners saying they were treated with respect, up from 56%. Violence remained rare, with only five assaults recorded in the year, and the personal officer scheme was working well. Forty new accommodation pods had replaced some condemned huts, with more planned, the prison held Enabling Environment accreditation, and mental health services were well coordinated, including evening sessions for men on release on temporary licence.
Inspectors nonetheless found two large houseblocks had been condemned entirely and a third was operating at around half capacity due to fire-safety failures, describing decades of underinvestment in the site. Only around 29% of prisoners were in full-time work, training or education, well short of what would be expected of a settled open prison, with delays often blamed on slow processing by community agencies. Just over half of prisoners found the complaints process easy to use, 24% said drugs were easy to get, and the resettlement team had been cut from five staff to one, causing knock-on delays. There were five abscondings in the year, and social-care assessments for vulnerable and elderly prisoners were severely delayed.
Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
June 2022
To read the full reports, go to the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website or follow the links below:
- Inspection report (PDF), Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Spring Hill by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (18 April–6 May 2022, published August 2022)