Prison
Cat YOI, C
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Isis
IMB Annual Report 2022 · Published 25 May 2023
HMP/YOI Isis, a training prison for young adults and Category C men, housed around 600 prisoners in 2022. The Board noted an encouraging drop in self-harm and decreasing trends in violence and use of force, alongside effective healthcare leadership. However, significant concerns remain regarding persistent staffing shortages, insufficient time out of cell, and poor provision of purposeful activity and accredited rehabilitation programs, which hinder prisoners' progression and resettlement.
Positive Findings
Reception areas are generally clean, and prisoners are treated with decency and respect during arrival procedures, with initial health and safety checks performed. The Board noted an encouraging drop in self-harm incidents and decreasing trends in violence and use of force. Healthcare provision leadership and oversight were assessed as effective by HMIP, with good waiting times for many mental health services. Relationships between officers and prisoners in the segregation unit were generally observed to be good, and the equality team implemented practical actions to improve outcomes for prisoners.
Key Concerns
Safety
The rate of violence remained too high.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The regime in place during 2022 has provided two and a half hours out of cell each day for all prisoners. It is the IMB’s concern that this amount of time in cell becomes normalised and there are not sufficient efforts to return the prison to a properly staffed full regime.
Substance Misuse
Reports of drug use increased significantly in 2022 with 141 incidents reported.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
The IMB has previously expressed concern at the number of badly fitting cell windows which have design problems, resulting in windows that are either jammed open or closed. This has been a problem since shortly after the prison opened and has not been resolved.
Staffing
Key work has suffered significantly, because of staffing difficulties. After some improvement in early 2022 there has been little delivery in subsequent months.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
It has been a turbulent year in the multifaith chaplaincy with services and activities not yet fully restored since Covid.
Education/Purposeful Activity
The HMIP report judges the provision of purposeful activity at Isis to be poor. As few as 18% of prisoners may be involved in purposeful activity out of cells during a morning or afternoon session.
Education/Purposeful Activity
HMIP assessed that there were insufficient opportunities to progress to higher level programmes.
Staffing
The offender management unit (OMU) has been understaffed all year and Band 4 prison offender managers (POMs) are often cross-deployed, impacting the work POMs are able to complete.
Resettlement/Release
There is a backlog of OASys reports, estimated to be about 80 at the end of 2022. There is also a backlog in recategorising prisoners, around 100 at the end of 2022.
Resettlement/Release
There are no accredited interventions that address, for instance, domestic abuse (BBR) or violence (Kaizen).
Resettlement/Release
The publication of the long-awaited policy framework for the management of prisoners’ property has had no effect on the continuing problem of prisoners’ property not arriving with them when they transfer into the prison.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staffing shortages across all areas significantly increased during the year, impacting every aspect of prison life, including support and activities. Key work delivery suffered due to these difficulties, with cross-deployment of staff to mainstream duties affecting time available for specialist equality roles and contributing to an understaffed Offender Management Unit. Recruitment is not keeping pace with attrition, as 68% of staff have less than two years' experience.
Healthcare
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust provides primary care, mental health, and substance misuse services, with leadership and oversight assessed as effective by HMIP. While waiting times for most health provisions were acceptable, optician appointments were protracted, and initial mental health triage could take up to eight weeks, which is deemed too long for early intervention. Not all prisoners requiring Mental Health Act transfers were moved within nationally recommended timescales.
Regime & Daily Life
The daily regime provided two and a half hours out of cell for all prisoners, concluding at 5:30 p.m., with no evening activities. An analysis indicated an average of four hours and 28 minutes out of cell, though weekend time was considerably reduced to less than two hours daily. The IMB is concerned that this limited time out of cell is becoming normalised, preventing a return to a properly staffed full regime, which HMIP recommended should be a minimum of 10 hours.
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 transfers) | 45 | 38 | |
| Adjudications | 20 | 10 | |
| Bullying / assaults / intimidation | 10 | 14 | |
| Canteen | 28 | 23 | |
| Confidential / other | 26 | 21 | |
| Employment / education / training | 14 | 13 | |
| Health (mental health) | 6 | 4 | |
| Health (treatment/medication) | 15 | 16 | |
| Property (outside prison) | 28 | 31 | |
| Property (within prison) | 16 | 13 | |
| Racial discrimination | 2 | 0 | |
| Sentence management / release / HDC | 27 | 27 | — |
| Staff conduct (non-racial) | 13 | 17 | |
| Total applications | 260 | 241 | |
| Visits | 10 | 14 |
Recommendations (14)
Ministry of Justice: 2
HMPPS: 5
Governor / Director: 7
2 repeated
Recommendation 1
Require that the amount of churn i.e., the frequency that prisoners are moved around the prison estate, is reduced, so that prisoners arriving at HMP/YOI Isis have enough of their sentence remaining to enable them to benefit from the training and rehabilitation activities of the prison and for the prison to provide appropriate preparation for release.
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 2
Support the Prison Service in the development and implementation of an effective workforce strategy by ensuring that the pay and conditions of prison officers are attractive when compared against similar professions.
Ministry of Justice
Staffing
Recommendation 3
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
As highlighted in previous reports there is the need for a workforce strategy, that addresses the issues of recruitment, attrition and availability.
HMPPS
Staffing
Recommendation 4
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
A solution to the broken windows in prisoners’ cells needs to be found and funded.
HMPPS
Estate
Recommendation 5
Prev. unaddressed
Having published a Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework, ensure that it is fully implemented and adhered to.
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 6
Require prisons receiving prisoners from the courts to complete an OASys report before a prisoner is transferred.
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 7
Provide an assessment of the impact of the changed arrangements for the resettlement of prisoners on their prospects of securing housing, employment and education.
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 8
Provide training and/or supervision of officers completing ACCT documents to ensure consistently accurate good quality entries.
Governor / Director
Safety
Recommendation 9
Continue the development of data and information that provides live information on participation in purposeful activities.
Governor / Director
Purposeful Activity
Recommendation 10
Ensure that the prison can show the outcomes for prisoners of the education model adopted for education programmes. Also use data to improve the focus on teaching outcomes for prisoners and their employability on release.
Governor / Director
Education
Recommendation 11
Work to ensure the full use of the skills zone facilities.
Governor / Director
Purposeful Activity
Recommendation 12
Monitor, using data, the approach across the prison to answering cell bells.
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 13
As soon as practical resume weekly faith services. Require the chaplaincy to provide regular information to prisoners on the work and activities provided by the chaplaincy.
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 14
Provide a wider range of accredited programmes for prisoners to help them address issues prior to release or facilitate moves to prisons where these programmes are available.
Governor / Director
Resettlement