Prison
Cat C
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Maidstone
IMB Annual Report 2023 · Published 3 August 2023
HMP Maidstone, a Category C foreign national prison with a population of 603, is generally safe but faces significant challenges. Persistent delays in the Home Office immigration system cause profound uncertainty and prolonged detention for prisoners, exacerbating mental health issues. The prison struggles with severe staffing shortages across healthcare, education, and regime provision, alongside an acute lack of quality purposeful activity places. Additionally, communication barriers due to inadequate translation of official documents and the dilapidated condition of the Victorian estate remain key concerns.
Positive Findings
HMP Maidstone is largely considered a safe and well-run prison, with low levels of violence and good staff-prisoner relationships. The Board commends efforts in induction, diversity and inclusion, and compassionate mental health support. In-cell telephony and family visits have positively impacted prisoner contact with families. The chaplaincy team is highly commended, and the prison is making significant efforts to increase purposeful activity opportunities.
Key Concerns
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
The uncertainty caused by the application of the immigration system. There are too many people detained in HMP Maidstone for immigration purposes once they have completed their sentence. This ongoing detention creates problems because of the uncertainty of its end date. There are also too many people held in HMP Maidstone who have passed the date when they are eligible for early removal, and who wish to return to their own country, but are unable to do so because of processing delays in the Home Office.
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
Communication issues as some prisoners do not speak English, even though prison staff work hard to minimise language barriers. For example, prisoners are required to sign Home Office documentation related to their removal from the UK, available only in English, which they may not wholly or partly understand. This is unfair and an avoidable source of stress and anxiety.
Mental Health
Repeated
Mental health problems that exist in all prisons are made worse because of the additional complications of being a foreign national in a British prison and the stress caused by the way immigration issues are handled. But a shortage of resources, particularly for early intervention programmes, limits what they can do and can mean that expensive responses are needed, because cheaper preventive action was not taken earlier.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Repeated
There are not enough places for prisoners to take up either education or training opportunities and many of the opportunities that do exist are of a poor quality. All the industries suffer from the poor state of the buildings in which they are housed, limiting external commercial operators and the provision of meaningful training.
Overcrowding
The increasing numbers in the prison. As more and more cells are turned into double occupancy, there is a potential for safety to reduce. Lack of adequate CCTV coverage remains both a safety and a security issue.
Staffing
Repeated
Staffing shortages and vacancies across various departments, including healthcare (vacant psychiatrist post, psychology team under pressure), education (vacancies), and general regime provision (weekend unlock, visits). Key work compliance rates remain low, below 50%.
Estate/Conditions
Much of HMP Maidstone is more than 200 years old and therefore needs updating and refurbishment; some cells are damp and have damaged windows. The prison depends upon Gov Facilities Services Limited (GFSL) to maintain creaking and overburdened systems of heating, power, and water, leading to frequent issues.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staffing shortages are a significant concern across various departments, including a vacant psychiatrist post and understaffed psychology team in healthcare, and education vacancies impacting curriculum delivery. The Home Office unit on-site also carries vacancies. Weekend regimes and prisoner visits are limited by staff availability. While the Offender Management Unit performs well despite shortages, key worker compliance remains low, and chaplaincy relies heavily on volunteers due to staffing gaps.
Healthcare
Mental health issues in HMP Maidstone are exacerbated by immigration system complexities and stress, with a shortage of resources for early intervention. The psychology team faces pressure due to staffing issues and the psychiatrist post is vacant, leading to medication prescribing difficulties. External hospital appointment waiting times are a persistent complaint, and the interpreter service for healthcare consultations is often unsatisfactory. The substance misuse provider, CGL, reports challenges with alcohol brewing and drug use, but peer-led groups are popular and effective.
Regime & Daily Life
The regime has improved post-Covid, allowing prisoners in work or education to spend an average of 7 hours and 45 minutes out of cell, though unemployed prisoners have only 4 hours and weekend unlock is restricted by staff shortages. There is an insufficient number of quality purposeful activity, education, and vocational training places, with only about two-thirds of the population engaged. The prison estate, over 200 years old, suffers from damp cells, damaged windows, and frequent utility issues, and industry buildings are in poor condition, limiting training opportunities. However, in-cell telephony is successfully implemented, showers are being refurbished, and outdoor exercise equipment is available.
Applications to the IMB
Prisoners can apply to their IMB about any aspect of their treatment. This table shows application counts by category.
| Category | Current | Previous | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation, including laundry, clothing, ablutions | 9 | 8 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogue(s) | 18 | 5 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 19 | 14 | |
| Equality | 6 | 6 | — |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 22 | 13 | |
| Food and kitchens | 10 | 4 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 23 | 53 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection restrictions | 50 | 31 | |
| Miscellaneous, including complaints system | 34 | 54 | |
| Property during transfer or in another establishment or location | 36 | 57 | |
| Property within this establishment | 45 | 48 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, library, regime, time out of cell | 7 | 25 | |
| Sentence management, including HDC, release on temporary licence, parole, release dates, recategorisation | 76 | 95 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 28 | 33 | |
| Transfers | 5 | 7 |
Recommendations (13)
Home Office: 2
HMPPS: 6
Governor / Director: 5
11 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
To work with the Home Office to require that prisoners sign official documentation either in their own language or in a language they understand. Many prisoners need help with translation that they are not receiving.
Home Office
Equality
Recommendation 2
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
To work with the Home Office to ensure that anyone who has completed their custodial sentence does not remain within HMP Maidstone. People who are detained for immigration reasons should be moved to the immigration detention estate.
Home Office
Resettlement
Recommendation 3
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Ensure that no category D prisoner, who has no bars to transfer to the open estate, is held in a category C establishment.
HMPPS
Regime
Recommendation 4
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Give permission to HMP Maidstone to offer a release on temporary licence.
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 5
Provide funding for CCTV across the prison, and for enhanced gatehouse security.
HMPPS
Safety
Recommendation 6
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Provide feedback to HMP Maidstone on the effectiveness of activities undertaken to prepare prisoners for release both in the UK and abroad.
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 7
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Provide funding to allow HMP Maidstone to increase the provision of good quality activities for all prisoners.
HMPPS
Purposeful Activity
Recommendation 8
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Facilitate sharing across the prison and, where relevant, the immigration detention estate, of core material produced for foreign national prisoners and detained individuals.
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 9
Allow prisoners who attend rehabilitation courses to keep their places at, and pay from, training and education.
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 10
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Reintroduce governors’ wing surgeries.
Governor / Director
Fair and Humane Treatment
Recommendation 11
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Increase the quality and quantity of key work sessions.
Governor / Director
Fair and Humane Treatment
Recommendation 12
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Improve the quality and quantity of education and training opportunities.
Governor / Director
Education
Recommendation 13
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Increase the privileges available to category D prisoners who remain in HMP Maidstone.
Governor / Director
Fair and Humane Treatment
Other IMB Reports for Maidstone
2025
Published 3 Dec 2025
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
20 Nov 2023
IRP
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.