The prison was given a full inspection in November and December 2024, 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 Stafford is a category C training and resettlement prison in Staffordshire, run by HM Prison and Probation Service, holding men convicted of sexual offences, with 753 prisoners at the time of inspection. Inspectors rated safety and respect both Good and purposeful activity and preparation for release both reasonably good, all unchanged from the previous inspection in 2020. Charlie Taylor said Stafford “remained a good prison, achieving the same scores as at our last inspection,” under a governor who had brought greater stability after four changes in four years.
Violence was very low, with just 14 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and 6 assaults on staff in the year, and self-harm was among the lowest of similar prisons. Drug use was exceptionally low, with a positivity rate of just 1.1% on mandatory testing. Education was rated good across all four Ofsted assessment areas, library and gym use had improved significantly, and the specialist care unit on G Wing offered rehabilitation and palliative care via a multidisciplinary team, providing outreach to a further 12 regional prisons. Forty-six prisoners progressed to open conditions in the year, faster than previously.
Inspectors nonetheless found many staff deliberately avoided learning about prisoners’ offences to avoid bias, which paradoxically undermined identification of risk given the population. Minority ethnic prisoners were more likely to report being physically restrained than white prisoners, and staff sickness was described as too high. Prison workshops offered poorly paid, low-value work with little connection to employment on release, only around half the population received risk and needs reviews within the standard cycle, and category C transfers for resettlement were often slow or did not happen at all. Dental waits exceeded 12 weeks for an initial appointment, and one admission to the specialist care unit made outside clinical criteria blocked a palliative care bed for over a year.
Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
March 2025
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 Stafford by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (19 November–5 December 2024, published 10 March 2025) | 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 Stafford | |