Prison
Cat C
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
The Mount
IMB Annual Report 2025 · Published 19 August 2025
HMP The Mount's IMB report highlights a period of little significant change, despite staff's efforts to manage challenges like drugs and overcrowding. While staff-prisoner interactions and healthcare provision showed improvements, key concerns persist regarding the inadequate support for IPP prisoners, severe overcrowding impacting living conditions, and limited purposeful activity opportunities. The Board also noted issues with property management and the unsuitability of the reception area.
Positive Findings
The Board commends the staff's hard work and dedication in overcoming continuing challenges like drugs and overcrowding. Improvements include better management of vulnerable prisoners, increased staff-prisoner interactions, and generally good physical and mental healthcare with reduced dental waiting times. The prison maintains a clean environment, and initiatives like the CFO programme and new laundry contracts are welcomed. Positive action has been taken to improve ACCT procedures, and there has been a reduction in deaths in custody.
Key Concerns
Substance Misuse
Repeated
The continued attraction for organised criminal gangs to supply drugs to prisoners, and the ability of drones to supply them in significant quantities, as well as mobile phones, almost to order, is a continuing concern.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
The continued detention of IPP prisoners beyond their sentences remains an issue. The prison is unable to provide sufficient programmes, courses or support to help these prisoners progress towards release, effectively resulting in their prolonged detention.
Overcrowding
Repeated
The Board continues to be concerned by the doubling up of single cells. Prisoners in these cells share a forced intimacy without adequate privacy; there is often not even enough space for prisoners to put away their personal possessions.
Education/Purposeful Activity
There are not enough places for every prisoner to participate in activities full-time and this does not seem likely to improve in the short term for the following reasons: the closure of many of the workshops for up to six months for renovation, and substantial reduction in education hours.
Resettlement/Release
An increasing number of prisoners being transferred to The Mount with a very short amount of time remaining on their sentence – sometimes as little as two weeks – with little or no time to adjust to their new circumstances or to prepare for their release and often missing documentation or property they need.
Equality/Diversity
The Board continues to be concerned about accessibility. Facilities for disabled prisoners are limited, with poor wheelchair access across the estate. The long distances between key services such as healthcare, education, the visits hall and workshops - often exposed to the elements - present ongoing challenges for prisoners with mobility needs.
Other
Repeated
Property: No improvement – arguably worse (at least as it relates to property of prisoners transferring in).
Estate/Conditions
The reception area space is wholly inadequate for the numbers that pass through in normal circumstances. The property store is also insufficient to house the stored property, which has accumulated over many years.
Estate/Conditions
The system for maintaining and replacing on-wing laundries is flawed, with machines not being maintained properly, unclear responsibility for problems, and prisons asked to find significant sums at short notice for replacements.
Estate/Conditions
Outside the prison perimeter, there has often been a lot of litter, due to the lack of bins and the fact that no prisoners are authorised to clean outside. A system needs to be put in place to address this.
Board Commentary
Staffing
The prison is fully staffed, leading to prisoners spending more time out of their cells and improved staff-prisoner relationships due to increased confidence in interactions. Key working has been impacted by staffing levels and short-notice redeployments, but the prison is committed to improving staffing to expand the programme. Six officers have volunteered as key work champions to enhance peer support.
Healthcare
Prisoners' physical healthcare is comparable to community services, with fewer hospital appointment cancellations due to better escort availability. Mental healthcare is generally good, and fewer mental health referrals are needed as prisoners spend more time out of their cells, with dental waiting times falling by two-thirds. However, accessibility issues exist, with one disabled prisoner needing to be carried upstairs for medication.
Regime & Daily Life
Prisoners are spending more time out of their cells, but opportunities for work or education are limited, and prisoner turnover further restricts study periods. Many workshops are closed for up to six months for renovation, impacting activity. The Board remains concerned by the doubling up of single cells and the need for refurbishment of some showers.
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 | 22 | 19 | |
| Bullying, harassment or victimisation | 2 | 1 | |
| Canteen/purchases | 5 | 8 | |
| Complaints (relating to general complaints procedure) | 12 | 10 | |
| Discrimination | 6 | 4 | |
| Drugs | 1 | 0 | |
| Food | 18 | 15 | |
| Healthcare | 48 | 36 | |
| IPP related | 7 | 5 | |
| Legal | 4 | 2 | |
| Loss or damage to property | 29 | 22 | |
| Parole | 3 | 1 | |
| Pay | 1 | 0 | |
| Regime (including time out of cell) | 33 | 28 | |
| Staff/staff behaviour | 38 | 31 | |
| Total | 338 | 285 | |
| Transfers (other than accommodation) | 4 | 3 | |
| Visits | 12 | 9 | |
| Welfare | 3 | 2 | |
| Work/education | 8 | 6 |
Recommendations (10)
Ministry of Justice: 4
HMPPS: 3
Governor / Director: 3
6 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
The Minister should adopt the recommendation of the House of Commons Justice Committee, in February 2023, that IPP prisoners be re-sentenced.
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 2
Repeated
The Minister should ensure that prisons that hold IPP prisoners are structured and resourced to be able to provide the specialist help and support that they need, both while they are in prison and while they are preparing for the parole board and (hopefully) a life in the community.
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 3
Repeated
The Minister should ensure that members of the parole board receive additional training to allow them fully to understand what being an IPP prisoner is like and how much of a challenge it can be for an IPP prisoner to appear before them.
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 4
Repeated
The Minister should ensure the Probation Service in the community is structured and resourced to be able to provide the specialist help and support that IPP prisoners will need as they return to life after a long period in prison.
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 5
Repeated
HMPPS should take more action to support IPP prisoners, both leading up to and following release into the community.
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 6
Repeated
HMPPS should adopt the recommendations contained in the recent learning lessons bulletin from the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman regarding prisoner property, supplemented by a (limited) number of sanctions for failure to comply.
HMPPS
Other
Recommendation 7
HMPPS should consider prohibiting the transfer of a prisoner from one establishment to another within, say, three months of their release date unless there is a particular reason for doing so, such as to be nearer to their family.
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 8
The Governor should introduce a trial to increase the number of family visits for enhanced prisoners to see if it is welcomed by prisoners and has the potential benefits in terms of their behaviour.
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 9
The Governor should fully evaluate each of the existing workshops post-renovation to decide if they should continue, be altered, or replaced by an alternative that can offer more, whether in terms of employment opportunities post-release or for which it is simply easier to recruit trainers.
Governor / Director
Education
Recommendation 10
The Governor should ensure that any arrangements with Redemption Roasters going forward result in the employment of a higher number of prisoners (both in The Mount and post-release), and fully compensate The Mount for the costs of operating the roastery in the workshop.
Governor / Director
Education
Other IMB Reports for The Mount
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
11 Nov 2024
Unannounced
Safety: 3
Respect: 3
Activity: 1
Release: 3
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.
Prevention of Future Deaths Reports
Coroner PFD reports issued to this establishment.