Prison
Cat A
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Belmarsh
IMB Annual Report 2020 · Published 5 October 2020
HMP Belmarsh faced a challenging year, dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to significant regime restrictions. Despite this, the prison demonstrated good infection control, and staff were commended for their dedication and innovative approaches. Key concerns remain the dilapidated shower areas, persistent triple occupancy, and inadequate facilities management. While violence decreased, self-harm incidents increased, and purposeful activity and educational provision continue to need improvement, particularly in high-security and segregation units.
Positive Findings
The Board was impressed by the dedication of staff in maintaining a safe environment and achieving reduced violence levels. Positive developments included the commitment to end triple occupancy, effective COVID-19 management, improved use of force governance, and the successful implementation of in-cell telephones and televisions. The new IEP policy, good staff-prisoner relationships, and proactive equality management were also commended.
Key Concerns
Safety
The main area of concern is the existence of so many gangs, and the influence and pressure that these gang members exert on other prisoners and the ensuing conflict issues.
Overcrowding
Repeated
The issue of triple occupancy in cells designed for two remained a major area of concern from a safety perspective, as well as a decency one.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
the shower areas, on which we have been reporting critically for several years, continue to be a disgrace, and a cause of real concern. Assurances that the necessary comprehensive refurbishment would take place have not been fulfilled.
Estate/Conditions
The prison is not well supported by GFSL at all, and the time taken to get even simple tasks completed is unacceptable to the Board. Facilities management requires review and radical improvement.
Mental Health
Mental health issues among prisoners are a significant concern, with most inpatient beds occupied by mental health patients. This concern was amplified during the pandemic, when face-to-face psychology work practically stopped.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Effective provision of purposeful activity within the prison remains hampered by difficulties in enabling sufficient numbers of prisoners to attend education and workshops, in part owing to conflicts.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Repeated
educational provision for prisoners in the HSU and segregation unit is not of a sufficiently high standard.
Resettlement/Release
The continuing shortage of category D places in the prison estate prevented some transfers out, causing a lot of dissatisfaction among the prisoners concerned.
Safety
On the other hand, incidents of self-harm have unfortunately increased.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
It is also disappointing that the upgrade of the HSU has not resolved the inadequate ventilation and high temperatures suffered there during the summer months.
Safety
A major concern for the staff in reception is the large number of conflicts they have to deal with when transporting prisoners for court appearances.
Staffing
The Board is disappointed that there are so few body-worn cameras being worn routinely by officers [in HSU].
Staffing
The Board is concerned that the wearing of body-worn cameras is not mandatory on the unit [segregation].
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Non-CSC prisoners were still entitled to one hour’s exercise each day but only if the unit was not full. When the unit was full, they could find themselves restricted to 30 minutes’ exercise per day... The Board is concerned that non-CSC prisoners are still not receiving their full exercise entitlements.
Complaints/Property
The Board has sometimes been unimpressed by the standard of the responses given [to complaints]. Complaints were sometimes returned undated and unsigned, and with comments not adequately addressing the issues raised.
Other
Repeated
The handling of prisoners’ property, whether in prison or on transfer to prison, remains a serious unresolved issue. Prisoners can wait a significant and unreasonable time to receive their property.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staff dedication and innovation were highly commended, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The prison benefited from a key worker scheme, though it was paused during lockdown. Recruitment of primary care nursing staff presented challenges, and the offender management unit experienced some issues with cross-deployment. Staff generally accepted and made good use of body-worn cameras.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision by Oxleas NHS Trust was generally satisfactory, with good staff liaison. However, mental health issues were a significant concern, exacerbated by the pandemic which also saw face-to-face psychology work cease. Challenges included hospital appointment cancellations, high 'did not attend' rates for outpatient clinics, and nursing staff recruitment problems. The prison effectively managed COVID-19 within healthcare, despite a prisoner death and staff outbreaks, maintaining a good record of infection control.
Regime & Daily Life
The regime was dominated by COVID-19 restrictions, leading to prisoners being confined to cells for long periods, limited purposeful activity, and cancelled visits. While the prison managed these restrictions well with cell-based education and some exercise, it significantly impacted daily life. Prior to the pandemic, purposeful activity was already hindered by attendance issues due to conflicts. Garden work for HSU prisoners remained absent.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity Allocation | 57 | — | |
| Adjudication | 25 | — | |
| Application System | 0 | — | |
| Bullying | 7 | — | |
| Canteen | 137 | — | |
| Catalogues | 61 | — | |
| Cleaning/Hygiene/Supplies | 1 | — | |
| Closed Visits | 2 | — | |
| Complaints | 12 | — | |
| Disability | 0 | — | |
| DOC/Conflict | 20 | — | |
| Education | 39 | — | |
| Employment | 21 | — | |
| Equalities-non racial | 12 | — | |
| Equalities-racial | 1 | — | |
| Finance / Cash | 103 | — | |
| Finance/Cash (Other Establishment) | 36 | — | |
| Food | 41 | — | |
| Foreign National | 3 | — | |
| Gym | 7 | — | |
| HDC | 0 | — | |
| IEP | 98 | — | |
| Letters / Censors | 114 | — | |
| Library | 1 | — | |
| Newspapers / Magazines | 51 | — | |
| OASys/Sentence Plan | 117 | — | |
| Other | 264 | — | |
| Other Prisoners | 2 | — | |
| Own accomodation | 0 | — | |
| Parole | 1 | — | |
| Pay | 62 | — | |
| Pay (Other Establishment) | 2 | — | |
| Pin Phones | 87 | — | |
| Post (Incoming) | 2 | — | |
| Post (Outgoing) | 0 | — | |
| Post Rule 39 | 0 | — | |
| Property Damaged | 3 | — | |
| Property DST | 1 | — | |
| Property Houseblock | 72 | — | |
| Property HSU | 0 | — | |
| Property Lost/Stolen | 24 | — | |
| Property (Other Establishment) | 91 | — | |
| Property Reception | 321 | — | |
| Re-Categorisation | 58 | — | |
| Reception | 185 | — | |
| Regime | 3 | — | |
| Religion | 4 | — | |
| Residential | 348 | — | |
| Security | 90 | — | |
| Segregation | 14 | — | |
| Sentence Calculations | 4 | — | |
| Showers | 0 | — | |
| Staff | 83 | — | |
| Transfer/Allocation | 167 | — | |
| Violence | 4 | — | |
| Visits | 107 | — | |
| Visits Booking | 1 | — | |
| Work | 35 | — | |
| Write-Up | 8 | — |
Recommendations (15)
Ministry of Justice: 2
HMPPS: 5
Governor / Director: 8
5 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Will the minister direct HMPPS to allocate funding for this works programme and to ensure that it takes place in 2020/21 (see section 5.1)?
Ministry of Justice
Estate
Recommendation 2
Will the minister ensure that, in future, prisons which are required to implement such nationwide policies are fully informed and prepared before policies are publicly announced (see section 7.6)?
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 3
Will HMPPS work with the prison and Serco to ensure that Belmarsh prisoners are not delayed in returning to the prison after attending court (see section 4.1)?
HMPPS
Safety
Recommendation 4
Will HMPPS take steps to achieve significant improvement in the timeliness and efficiency of facilities management work at Belmarsh (see section 5.1)?
HMPPS
Estate
Recommendation 5
Repeated
Will HMPPS work with the prison to ensure that three-person occupancy of cells at Belmarsh is ended in the course of 2020/21 and is not reintroduced after that (see section 5.1)?
HMPPS
Overcrowding
Recommendation 6
Repeated
Will HMPPS reform the system of handling prisoners’ property throughout the prison estate, so that it works effectively at ensuring that prisoners are united with their property swiftly and correctly whenever they move in the prison system (see section 5.8)?
HMPPS
Other
Recommendation 7
Will HMPPS confirm whether the known error in the national prison visits booking system has been resolved? (section 7.4)
HMPPS
Visits
Recommendation 8
Will the prison take steps to encourage greater use of body-worn cameras in the high security and segregation units, to bring levels of use in line with the rest of the prison (see sections 5.2.1 and 5.2.2)?
Governor / Director
Safety
Recommendation 9
Will the prison review the policy relating to the provision of in-cell telephony in the HSU, with a view to permitting in-cell telephone use for this group of prisoners, in line with other high-security prisons and subject to necessary security restrictions (see section 5.2.1)?
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 10
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Will the prison take steps to remedy the continued poor ventilation in the HSU (see section 5.2.1)?
Governor / Director
Estate
Recommendation 11
Will the prison take steps to ensure that all prisoners in the segregation unit receive the amount of daily exercise to which they are entitled (see section 5.2.2)?
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 12
Will the prison implement recommendations 26 and 27 of the 2017 Lammy Review in its handling of all complaints, not just discrimination complaints, and change the process for complaints to accommodate them (see section 5.7)?
Governor / Director
Complaints
Recommendation 13
Will the prison take steps to improve the environment of the outpatients holding room (see section 6.2)?
Governor / Director
Healthcare
Recommendation 14
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Will the prison make every effort, along with Milton Keynes College, to ensure that education is better tailored to the needs of the prisoners and available to more of them, and to improve education offered to prisoners in the HSU and the segregation unit (section 7.1)?
Governor / Director
Education
Recommendation 15
Will the prison take further steps, by effective use of risk assessment and other means, to increase significantly the number of prisoners with access to meaningful work experience and training (section 7.2)?
Governor / Director
Purposeful Activity
Other IMB Reports for Belmarsh
Prevention of Future Deaths Reports
Coroner PFD reports issued to this establishment.