Prison
Cat women's closed
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Send
IMB Annual Report 2021 · Published 26 August 2021
HMP Send operated under severe COVID-19 restrictions during the reporting year, significantly impacting the regime, education, and prisoner wellbeing, with women often confined for up to 23 hours daily. Despite these challenges, staff were commended for their professionalism and efforts to maintain safety and humane treatment, including the introduction of in-cell phones and improved canteen services. Key concerns highlighted by the Board include rising self-harm incidents, continued drug entry, the inhumane detention of IPP prisoners, and the detrimental long-term effects of restricted education and resettlement opportunities.
Positive Findings
The Board commends staff for their outstanding efforts throughout the pandemic, including quickly implementing a shielding wing, setting up testing, and arranging phone consultations. Staff demonstrated professionalism, kindness, and consideration, with positive examples like an 'open door policy' and support during personal bereavements. Living conditions are generally decent, with notable improvements in the canteen service and the introduction of in-cell telephones which significantly boosted morale and access to support. The chaplaincy provided outstanding pastoral care, and the gym offered active outdoor programmes. The Board also welcomes the recruitment of additional probation staff and the successful efforts towards IPP releases. Purple Visits have been hailed as an 'amazing' and 'super service' for maintaining family contact, and the Board believes all force used was proportionate.
Key Concerns
Safety
The major risk to prisoner safety at Send is self-harm, levels of which seemed unaffected early on in the pandemic but climbed as the year progressed. The number of self-harm incidents only decreased by 6% over the year despite the prison population decreasing by 40%.
Substance Misuse
Drugs continued to enter the prison throughout the reporting year despite restrictions, negatively impacting the safety of prisoners.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Under the very restricted national regime, living conditions have been inhumane, with prisoners kept behind doors for up to 23 hours a day for extended periods. The government's decision to not allow early access to Covid-19 vaccinations for prisoners and staff was unfair given the increased risks of transmission in a prison environment.
Other
Repeated
The Board continues to have concerns about the unjust and inhumane detention of the two remaining IPP prisoners, who are held many years beyond their original tariff dates (one by six years, one by 10 years).
Education/Purposeful Activity
Repeated
Classroom teaching was suspended and had not resumed, with in-cell learning packs proving insufficient without direct tutor input or support for learning difficulties. The Board is concerned that education was given a low priority in the national regime and that the lack of digital infrastructure and technology training means the Prison Service is failing to provide prisoners with skills required for a digital age.
Resettlement/Release
There is a lack of appropriate resettlement accommodation and gaps in the care of vulnerable foreign national prisoners at risk of deportation, with a lack of clarity regarding responsibility on release.
Equality/Diversity
National equality monitoring data is not current, hindering effective analysis of discrimination. DIRFs concerning racist behaviour had inconsistent outcomes, indicating staff difficulties in establishing racist behaviours, and some remain open for lengthy periods.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
There are still long delays in exchanging clothing from stored property and receiving property and mail sent in.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
Ventilation is an issue in cells, particularly during hot summer days, negatively impacting the health and wellbeing of prisoners.
Staffing
Repeated
Due to the national delay in implementing Offender Management in Custody (OMiC), prisoners have not had the support of key workers for yet another year, leading to a missed opportunity for regular quality conversations.
Estate/Conditions
Two ageing prefab blocks failed a fire safety check in March 2021 and were condemned.
Board Commentary
Staffing
The reporting year saw serious staff shortages, especially during a Covid-19 outbreak, leading to frequent cross-deployment and affecting property distribution. While staff were commended for their professionalism and kindness, the shortages curtailed wellbeing conversations and impacted effective oversight of equality and diversity. The national delay in implementing Offender Management in Custody (OMiC) meant prisoners lacked key worker support for yet another year. Positively, the probation team is now fully staffed with three permanent officers.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision was dominated by managing the Covid-19 pandemic, with significant efforts made to isolate cases, set up a shielding wing, implement testing, and arrange GP and hospital phone consultations. While the GP was available daily, non-urgent matters were often handled by phone. The waiting list for dental treatment increased, though efforts were underway to address the backlog. The Board expressed concern about the detrimental impact of national restrictions on physical and mental health, noting curtailed therapeutic interventions like PIPE and DTC, and a worsening obesity problem. However, the in-cell phones aided condition checks, and vitamin D was provided.
Regime & Daily Life
The regime was severely restricted throughout the reporting year due to Covid-19, with prisoners often locked in cells for up to 23 hours a day, leading to inhumane living conditions for extended periods. Classroom education, vocational training, ROTL, group therapy, and work opportunities were curtailed, and association was generally prohibited. Time out of cell was significantly limited, often to 30-45 minutes of outdoor exercise. Despite these restrictions, staff made efforts to provide in-cell activities and, at times, implemented an 'open door policy' to alleviate the impact of confinement.
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) | 18 | 38 | |
| Discipline/Adjudications/Segregation | 2 | 8 | |
| Diversity and Equality | 8 | 26 | |
| Food | 2 | 2 | — |
| General Complaints | 3 | 14 | |
| Healthcare | 26 | 28 | |
| IPP | 10 | 18 | |
| Legal | 3 | 5 | |
| Money | 0 | 0 | |
| Other | 20 | 25 | |
| Property | 18 | 36 | |
| Relationships (staff/prisoner) | 2 | 2 | — |
| Safety and Wellbeing | 1 | 2 | |
| Sentence Management (including re-categorisation) | 11 | 25 | |
| TOTAL | 124 | 251 | |
| Visiting and Telephones | 0 | 20 | |
| Work and Education | 0 | 2 |
Recommendations (17)
Ministry of Justice: 5
HMPPS: 6
Governor / Director: 6
4 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
The Board continues to have concerns about the unjust detention of the two IPP prisoners, both of whom are many years past their original short tariff date (7.3).
Ministry of Justice
Other
Recommendation 2
The Board is concerned that the government plan for 500 new prison places for women contradicts the female offender strategy (June 2018) which sets out the vision that custody should be made a last resort, reserved for the most serious offences. The Board believes that reassigning these resources into areas such as technology provision would positively impact on prisoners (7.1).
Ministry of Justice
Estate
Recommendation 3
The Board urges the Ministry of Justice to learn lessons from the last 12 months to develop a strategy for a future pandemic which ensures the humane treatment of prisoners (3.2).
Ministry of Justice
Strategy
Recommendation 4
The Board regrets the government decision not to allow prisoners and staff early access to vaccinations given the increased risks of transmission in a prison environment (6.2).
Ministry of Justice
Healthcare
Recommendation 5
The Board is concerned that there is a lack of appropriate resettlement accommodation (7.5).
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 6
The Board is concerned that the Covid-19 restrictions have created barriers for some prisoners, making them unable to complete their sentence plans and progress towards release (7.3).
HMPPS
Progression
Recommendation 7
The Board is concerned that education was given a low priority in the restrictive HMPPS national regime requirements, and that a lack of digital infrastructure meant that resumption of education in the community could not be replicated (7.1).
HMPPS
Education
Recommendation 8
Repeated
The Board is concerned that the Prison Service is currently failing to provide prisoners with the skills required for life in a digital age (7.1).
HMPPS
Education
Recommendation 9
The Board is concerned about the gaps in the care of vulnerable foreign national prisoners at risk of deportation and about the lack of clarity regarding ownership of responsibility on release (7.5).
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 10
The Board is concerned that national equality monitoring data is not current and does not allow for effective analysis of discrimination (5.4).
HMPPS
Equality
Recommendation 11
The Board hopes that the Purple Visits service will continue to be funded, with improved software to be more accommodating to children moving on screen (7.4).
HMPPS
Family Contact
Recommendation 12
The Board is concerned that drugs have continued to enter the prison throughout the reporting year. This is having a negative impact on the safety of prisoners (4.6).
Governor / Director
Substance Misuse
Recommendation 13
The Board is concerned that the issues identified in the 2018 HM Prisons Inspectorate report for the development of learning, skills and work, have not been fully addressed (7.1).
Governor / Director
Education
Recommendation 14
The Board is concerned that discrimination incident report forms (DIRFs) where racist behaviour between prisoners was highlighted have had inconsistent outcomes, indicating staff have been unable to establish beyond doubt racist behaviours (5.4).
Governor / Director
Equality
Recommendation 15
Repeated
The Board would like to highlight that ventilation is an issue in cells particularly during the hot summer days and has had a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of prisoners (5.1).
Governor / Director
Estate
Recommendation 16
Repeated
The Board is concerned that there are still long delays in exchanging clothing from stored property and receiving property and mail sent in (4.1).
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 17
The Board has identified that complaints in March 2021 have been stamped in batches indicating that boxes on wings were not being emptied nightly: this delay would impact on true response times (5.7).
Governor / Director
Complaints
Other IMB Reports for Send
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
17 Mar 2025
Unannounced
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.