Prison
Cat YOI, C
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Isis
IMB Annual Report 2020 · Published 4 June 2021
HMP/YOI Isis operated under a severely restricted regime throughout most of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to prisoners spending up to 23.5 hours a day in their cells and limited access to education, work, and association. The Board commended the prison leadership for managing these challenges and highlighted improvements in hygiene, but raised significant concerns about the impact of the regime on prisoner well-being, the ongoing issue of housing prisoners with chronic mental health needs in an unsuitable environment, and persistent problems with staff recruitment and property transfers. Despite a drop in overall violence during lockdown, levels began to rise towards the year's end, particularly among young adults.
Positive Findings
The Board commended the Governor and senior management for managing the prison well during the pandemic, including maximizing time out of cell, providing activities, and keeping positive COVID-19 cases low. Significant improvements were noted in food hygiene practices and the general cleanliness of the spurs. New prisoners praised the welcome from staff in the RCU and induction mentors, and improvements were made to the cleanliness of escort vehicles and cells. The kitchen manager also introduced more fresh vegetables and vegetarian options, with special dietary requirements catered for well. The segregation unit was found to be clean, well-maintained, and stably staffed.
Key Concerns
Mental Health
Repeated
The continued detention of prisoners at the establishment with enduring or chronic mental health problems and those with personality disorders, as a prison environment that will not deliver the positive changes needed.
Staffing
The centralised recruitment process for prison officers, is slow and fails to keep up with the rate of attrition, resulting in a constant understaffing.
Other
Repeated
The long-promised policy framework for prisoners' property has yet to appear, and there is no evidence that this is being addressed by HMPPS, leading to property loss for transferring prisoners.
Mental Health
The impact of the time spent in cells during the pandemic on the mental health of prisoners has not been systematically assessed and research is needed.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The restricted regime meant prisoners were in their cells for 22/21.5 hours a day, seriously impacting their wellbeing and ability to prepare for release, and a return to a full regime is needed as soon as conditions permit.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Face-to-face tuition is often necessary for less confident learners or practical skills, and a reliance on in-cell packs due to COVID-19 has meant many prisoners were released without gaining an accredited qualification or the benefits of diverse learning approaches.
Safety
Initiatives to reduce violence need to be focused on the increasing number of young adults, and acknowledge the incidence of bullying.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Organised physical exercise and access to the gym needs to be resumed as soon as conditions permit to support prisoners' physical and mental wellbeing.
Safety
Plans are needed to prevent a return to high levels of self-harm seen in the first three months of the year when a normal regime resumes.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
Communication between the offender management unit (OMU) and prisoners about sentence planning, recategorisation and transfers needs to improve as staffing levels increase, as delays and poor communication remain a significant issue and a major source of prisoner concerns.
Equality/Diversity
The findings of the equality survey need to be responded to, particularly understanding why prisoners feel jobs are unfairly allocated and reviewing the effectiveness of the Discrimination Incident Report Form (DIRF) system for reporting discrimination.
Safety
It is not the practice to test prisoners before they are transferred, which led to COVID-19 positive prisoners arriving and risking spread within Isis.
Safety
Some staff were slow to embrace and follow safety measures such as social distancing and the wearing of masks, contributing to a spike in staff absences in December.
Healthcare
Healthcare complaint forms were sometimes not as accessible as they had been previously during the period when time out of cell was severely limited.
Board Commentary
Staffing
The prison's staffing improved since 2019, but cross-deployment was necessary due to turnover and COVID-19 related absences. The centralised recruitment process is slow and fails to keep pace with attrition, leading to constant understaffing. Adherence to safety measures like social distancing and mask-wearing was initially slow among some staff, leading to a spike in absences in December. The delivery of key worker sessions was severely impacted by staff absences, with only 6% to 20% delivered in November and early December.
Healthcare
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust continued to provide healthcare services, adapting to essential services during the pandemic. Health assessments for new prisoners and GP consultations continued, though some were by telephone. The Board expressed ongoing concerns, repeated from previous years, about the detention of prisoners with enduring mental health problems or personality disorders, as prison is not the appropriate environment for their care. There was no systematic mental health assessment for all prisoners during the pandemic, despite long periods of cell confinement. Healthcare complaint forms were sometimes not easily accessible during the restricted regime.
Regime & Daily Life
The restricted regime, in place since the end of 2019, became much more severe from March 2020 due to COVID-19. Initially, prisoners were locked in cells for 23.5 hours a day, reducing to 22/21.5 hours later in the year. This meant minimal time out of cell for exercise, showers, and using the biometric system. Association, face-to-face education, and group work stopped, with learning largely confined to in-cell packs. This severe confinement had a serious negative impact on prisoners' wellbeing, ability to learn or work, and preparation for release.
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 | |
| Discipline | 12 | 14 | |
| Discrimination | 13 | 11 | |
| Family Contact | 8 | 13 | |
| Food | 27 | 25 | |
| General Conditions | 10 | 18 | |
| Healthcare | 29 | 33 | |
| Money | 8 | 7 | |
| Other | 6 | 7 | |
| Property | 44 | 49 | |
| Release | 6 | 9 | |
| Religion | 5 | 8 | |
| Staff Conduct | 9 | 15 | |
| Total | 238 | 268 | |
| Visits | 5 | 5 | — |
| Work/Education/Activities | 11 | 16 |
Recommendations (15)
Ministry of Justice: 1
HMPPS: 6
Governor / Director: 8
5 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
We urge the minister to require HMPPS, working with NHS England, to develop concrete action plans to address the continued detention of prisoners with enduring or chronic mental health problems and those with personality disorders, as a prison environment that will not deliver the positive changes needed.
Ministry of Justice
mental_health
Recommendation 2
revise the centralised recruitment process for prison officers, to ensure that the supply of new staff aligns with the predicted future requirements of the prison (see section 5.3)
HMPPS
staffing
Recommendation 3
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
deliver the ‘prisoners’ property policy framework’ that the minister stated in response to previous annual reports that HMPPS was planning to publish (see section 5.8)
HMPPS
other
Recommendation 4
Repeated
work with NHS England to address the concerns that prison is not the environment that will deliver positive changes for prisoners with chronic and enduring mental illness or personality disorders (see section 6.3)
HMPPS
mental_health
Recommendation 5
commission research into the impact of the time spent in cells during the pandemic on the mental health of prisoners
HMPPS
mental_health
Recommendation 6
return to a full regime as soon as conditions around the pandemic and the advice of PHE indicate that it is safe to do so
HMPPS
regime
Recommendation 7
recognise that while the prison has adapted education to the conditions imposed by COVID-19, face-to-face tuition is often necessary with less confident learners, or for some aspects of learning, such as practical skills or complex concepts. Most learners benefit from a range of different approaches, rather than a single method, and this needs to be reflected in future arrangements for education (see section 7.1).
HMPPS
education
Recommendation 8
ensure that initiatives to reduce violence are focused on the increasing number of young adults, and acknowledge the incidence of bullying (see section 4.4)
Governor / Director
safety
Recommendation 9
resume organised physical exercise and access to the gym as soon as conditions permit (see section 6.6)
Governor / Director
regime
Recommendation 10
ensure that plans are in place to prevent a return to the levels of self-harm over the first three months of the year, when a normal regime is resumed (see section 4.2)
Governor / Director
safety
Recommendation 11
continue to work hard with Novus to drive up levels of engagement in remote learning during a period when classroom teaching is unlikely to return for several more months (see section 7.1)
Governor / Director
education
Recommendation 12
Repeated
Prev. addressed
maintain the considerable improvement in the standard of hygiene and cleanliness that has been achieved, particularly in the houseblocks (see section 5.1)
Governor / Director
estate
Recommendation 13
ensure that healthcare complaint forms are easily accessible to all prisoners during the period when time out of cell is severely limited (see section 6.5)
Governor / Director
healthcare
Recommendation 14
Repeated
ensure that communication between the offender management unit (OMU) and prisoners about sentence planning, recategorisation and transfers improves as staffing levels increase (see section 7.3)
Governor / Director
resettlement
Recommendation 15
respond to the findings of the equality survey carried out by the Board, and particularly: - understand why prisoners feel that jobs are unfairly allocated - review whether the discrimination incident report form (DIRF) system is an effective means of prisoners reporting discrimination and having their concerns investigated (see section 5.4).
Governor / Director
equality