The prison was given a full inspection in January/February 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 & YOI Chelmsford is a category B local prison for adult men and young adults in Essex, run by HM Prison and Probation Service, holding 684 prisoners, around 70% of them on remand, with roughly 200 new arrivals a month. This was a reinspection following the Urgent Notification issued in August 2021, when the prison was found to be in drift and decline and rated poor on safety and purposeful activity. Inspectors rated all four healthy prison tests Not Sufficiently Good, an improvement on 2021 but still the lowest overall band.
Real progress had been made since the Urgent Notification. Assaults on staff were down by around half and prisoner-on-prisoner assaults down by roughly a fifth, the prison was fully staffed with improved retention, and the positive drug test rate was better than at comparable prisons. Free-flow movement around the prison had been reinstated, library use had risen sharply from just 3% of prisoners visiting weekly to 46%, and peer-support and mentoring schemes, including a chess mentoring initiative, were noted as positive practice. Overall, inspectors found a much happier, safer and more productive prison than in 2021, though still a challenging one.
Self-harm remained the most serious concern: incidents were up 18% since 2021 to among the highest rates in the adult male estate, with five self-inflicted deaths since the previous inspection, and well over half of new arrivals had a history of self-harm. Inspectors also raised a disparity in how non-white prisoners experienced the prison compared with white prisoners, and found body-worn cameras were activated in fewer than half of use-of-force incidents. Mental health provision was fragmented across multiple providers with lengthy waits for psychological therapy, and living conditions were poor in places, with some wings lacking working heating and cell privacy screens, long waits for optician and podiatry appointments, and most prisoners sharing cells designed for one person. There was no dedicated bail information officer despite the large remand population.
Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
May 2024
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 & YOI Chelmsford by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (22 January–8 February 2024, published 8 May 2024)
- Easy read summary of the 2024 inspection report
- Action plan, HM Prison and Probation Service action plan in response to the 2024 inspection of HMP & YOI Chelmsford
- Independent Review of Progress report, HM Inspectorate of Prisons review of progress at HMP & YOI Chelmsford (15–17 August 2022, published 7 October 2022)
- Urgent Notification debrief report, following the Urgent Notification issued for HMP & YOI Chelmsford (August 2021)