Prison
Cat C adult male prison
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Warren Hill
IMB Annual Report 2020 · Published 5 January 2021
HMP Warren Hill is a Category C adult male prison known for its therapeutic environments and progression regime. The IMB found it to be a safe establishment with strong staff-prisoner relationships and a wide array of purposeful activities. Key concerns include the persistent national issue of property transfer, outdated telephony infrastructure impacting family contact and parole hearings, and the lack of funding as a resettlement prison. The delay in completing on-site approved premises and high recall rates are also noted as challenges to successful resettlement.
Positive Findings
HMP Warren Hill is consistently judged as a safe prison for both prisoners and staff, with rare incidents of aggression. Staff-prisoner relationships are good, fostered by an effective key worker system. Healthcare provision is considered to be of a similar or better standard than in the community. The prison offers extensive educational, vocational, and creative opportunities, leading to high success rates at parole hearings. The Governor and staff are commended for maintaining a positive culture and achieving whole prison accreditation as an 'enabling environment', particularly during the challenges of the COVID-19 lockdown. Improvements in wing cooking facilities and the management of catering meetings have also been noted.
Key Concerns
Complaints/Property
Repeated
The Board deplores the apparent failure to deal with this issue [transfer of prisoners’ property], which causes a great deal of frustration and distress to individual prisoners at Warren Hill and, as IMBs report, elsewhere.
Estate/Conditions
Telephony and data lines at Warren Hill are not up to the required standard for today’s modern telephony and information technology (IT) services, which has meant that both visits and parole hearings during lockdown have been affected.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
Prisoner rehabilitation is often linked to the maintenance of family contact and this is inhibited by the high cost of calls – a cost much higher than in the outside community. The Board reiterates its hope that Warren Hill will soon be included in the development of in-cell telephony.
Resettlement/Release
Despite the fact that the majority of prisoners are working towards release, Warren Hill is still not funded as a resettlement prison.
Education/Purposeful Activity
The Board trusts that the creative experiences which provide developmental opportunities for prisoners will continue to be funded, at a time when such funding is in crisis as a result of the COVID-19 emergency.
Resettlement/Release
However, the number of recalls to custody is disappointingly high. Recall rates remain high and are a matter of concern; 47 prisoners on parole from Warren Hill have been recalled to prison during the year.
Estate/Conditions
work on the planned on-site approved premises has been frustratingly slow. The Board notes with regret that the planned on-site approved premises are still unfinished, despite creative efforts by the Governor to identify and spend money on the required refurbishment of a building that has remained empty and unused for several years.
Mental Health
The IMB was concerned that the parole board hearing for one prisoner was delayed by several months because a psychological report had not been written. It appears that this happened because the task was contracted out by the regional psychology service, and when a psychologist went off sick, no one else was found to complete the work. Failures of this sort can result in a delay in a prisoner’s eventual release.
Food/Catering
Repeated
Prisoners complain to Board members about food quality but when challenged about whether they have put their complaints in writing in the books on the servery, they usually respond by saying that this is not worth doing as nothing improves. New trolleys were purchased but there have been occasions in the last year when old ones were used by the kitchens in error and prisoners complained that food was cold.
Food/Catering
A number of prisoners suffer from health conditions which require special diets. These continue to be problematic.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Relationships between staff and prisoners are generally very good, facilitated by the key worker system which promotes dialogue and support, and continued effectively during lockdown. Warren Hill pioneered the key worker programme, which is now national. Staff are commended for their efforts in maintaining the positive culture and ethos of the prison, including during the challenging lockdown period. The Governor has also worked to increase activities and deployed staff interested in working with older prisoners on Sycamore unit.
Healthcare
Healthcare services are provided by Care UK in good facilities, with a new manager appointed in 2019. Provision is considered by prisoners to be as good as, or better than, community services, despite some issues like cancelled dental appointments due to equipment repair. Complaints, mostly about medication or dietary requirements, are handled, often through face-to-face meetings. Mental health support is provided by a team of nurses and a psychiatrist, and additional low-level psychological therapies (IAPT) were introduced during lockdown.
Regime & Daily Life
Prior to lockdown, prisoners experienced an extensive regime, with up to 12 hours out of cell daily. The COVID-19 lockdown significantly curtailed this, reducing time out of cell to 90 minutes for exercise and domestic tasks, or three hours for shielded prisoners on Sycamore unit. Purposeful activity is extensive, including educational, vocational, and creative opportunities, though education provision is only three and a half days a week. The Board urged the Governor to expand purposeful activity and the ROTL scheme as circumstances permit.
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 | 0 | 0 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogue(s) | 0 | 1 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, IEP, sanctions | 3 | 3 | — |
| Equality | 2 | 0 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 2 | 1 | |
| Food and kitchens | 4 | 1 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 4 | 4 | — |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection restrictions | 4 | 5 | |
| Miscellaneous, including complaints system | 2 | — | |
| Property during transfer or in another establishment or location | 8 | 9 | |
| Property within this establishment | 1 | 0 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, library, regime, time out of cell | 1 | 1 | — |
| Sentence management, including home detention curfew, ROTL, parole, release dates, recategorisation | 4 | 8 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 2 | 1 | |
| Transfers | 0 | 6 |
Recommendations (7)
Ministry of Justice: 1
HMPPS: 4
Governor / Director: 2
2 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The Board deplores the apparent failure to deal with this issue [transfer of prisoners' property], which causes a great deal of frustration and distress to individual prisoners at Warren Hill and, as IMBs report, elsewhere.
Ministry of Justice
Property
Response
The Board has been advised in ministerial replies over several years that a national review of the handling of the transfer of prisoners’ property has been under way.
Recommendation 2
The Board understands that planned work to correct this [telephony and data lines] has been delayed but hopes that the work will be completed as soon as possible.
HMPPS
Estate
Recommendation 3
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The Board reiterates its hope that Warren Hill will soon be included in the development of in-cell telephony.
HMPPS
Regime
Recommendation 4
The Board asks that consideration be given to this issue [Warren Hill not funded as a resettlement prison].
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 5
The Board trusts that the creative experiences which provide developmental opportunities for prisoners will continue to be funded, at a time when such funding is in crisis as a result of the COVID-19 emergency.
HMPPS
Education
Recommendation 6
The Board urges the Governor to expand the ROTL scheme as soon as circumstances permit.
Governor / Director
Resettlement
Recommendation 7
The Board asks the Governor to build on the action plan agreed with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons to expand the range and quality of purposeful activity available to prisoners.
Governor / Director
Purposeful Activity
Other IMB Reports for Warren Hill
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.