Prison
Cat C male training prison
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Ranby
IMB Annual Report 2025 · Published 6 August 2025
HMP Ranby, a Category C training prison, faced significant challenges in the reporting year, including a high level of violence, persistent issues with illicit substances, and severe overcrowding. The Board noted ongoing concerns regarding the deteriorating estate, the rising proportion of inexperienced staff, and significant delays in mental health transfers. Despite its training designation, the prison continues to house a high proportion of short-term resettlement prisoners who cannot access appropriate courses.
Positive Findings
The Board commended staff for professionalism and care in challenging situations within the Care and Separation Unit. Overall, prisoners are treated fairly and humanely by staff, with generally good relationships. Positive initiatives like the Care after Combat section for veterans were highlighted, and dedicating resources to house block 3 aided resettlement. Rigorous searches acted as a deterrent against illicit items, and the re-opened laundry and dedicated drug and alcohol rehabilitation house block are functioning well. The library service is well-used and popular, and family social visits appear to run smoothly.
Key Concerns
Safety
Repeated
High level of violence in the prison, including prisoner-on-prisoner assaults.
Substance Misuse
Repeated
Illicit substances continue to enter the prison, with high availability, including through drones and thrown packages.
Mental Health
Repeated
Significant delays in transferring prisoners with mental health issues from the CSU to appropriate facilities, putting strain on staff.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
Deteriorating estate condition, including shabby shower and toilet blocks in need of refurbishment, ongoing bedbug problems, and persistent overcrowding which is exacerbated by cell shortages.
Complaints/Property
Repeated
Ongoing issues with loss or misplacement of prisoners' property during transfers between establishments and house blocks, causing distress and frustration, and sometimes leading to violence.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
HMP Ranby functions more as a resettlement prison (40%) than its designated Category C training role (60%), exacerbated by a high churn of short-term prisoners who do not have sufficient time to complete rehabilitative education or work courses.
Staffing
Repeated
A rising proportion of inexperienced staff, many of whom lack the life skills and empathy necessary to deal with vulnerable or challenging prisoners, compounded by key workers being pulled from designated duties due to staff shortages.
Food/Catering
Repeated
Persistent problems with the canteen system, including items not being delivered as ordered, unwarranted delays in refunds, and a need for much better contract management at a higher level.
Complaints/Property
Complaint forms, IMB complaint forms and IPCI ombudsman forms have not been available on the house blocks, despite this matter being raised with wing Governors and the Governor on several occasions.
Healthcare
Repeated
Healthcare does not seem to have enough staff, leading to delayed or unreplied prisoner complaints and frustration regarding treatment, a situation little changed from last year.
Board Commentary
Staffing
The prison continues to experience issues with a rising proportion of inexperienced young officers who often lack the life skills and empathy needed to deal with vulnerable or challenging prisoners. This situation, reported last year, persists and is exacerbated by staff turnover. Key workers are frequently pulled from their duties due to staff shortages, impacting their ability to provide dedicated support. Healthcare also suffers from insufficient staffing, leading to delays.
Healthcare
HMP Ranby operates without a hospital but provides 24-hour healthcare, including physical, mental, and substance misuse screening upon reception, along with GP, dentistry, optometry, podiatry, physiotherapy, and pharmacy services. However, staffing shortages, partly due to lengthy security vetting, remain a problem, causing delays in responding to prisoner complaints. A significant concern is the very long waiting times, often over 28 days, for the transfer of prisoners with mental health issues to appropriate external facilities.
Regime & Daily Life
Prisoners are scheduled for gym attendance three times a week for 1.25-hour sessions, with a rota available on in-cell laptops. Feedback for the gym is positive, and there's high demand for sessions. However, issues reported last year, such as unlocking prisoners in time for services, remain patchy. In recent months, there has been a noticeable reluctance among several prisoners to attend work, leading to lower than expected attendance.
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 | 14 | 24 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogues | 12 | 23 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives schemes, sanctions | 4 | 13 | |
| Equality | 3 | 3 | — |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 12 | 7 | |
| Food and kitchens | 0 | 1 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 46 | 26 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions | 8 | 11 | |
| Miscellaneous | 0 | 0 | |
| Property during transfer or in another facility | 39 | 39 | — |
| Property within the establishment | 16 | 25 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell | 13 | 13 | — |
| Sentence management, including HDC (home detention curfew), ROTL (release on temporary licence), parole, release dates, recategorisation | 30 | 33 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 54 | 4 | |
| Transfers | 9 | 7 |
Recommendations (13)
Ministry of Justice: 3
HMPPS: 6
Governor / Director: 4
7 repeated
Recommendation 1
Could the Minister tell us why, when the prisons are crying out for extra accommodation, the building of much needed house blocks is being put on hold, especially as much of the infrastructure is in place?
Ministry of Justice
Estate
Recommendation 2
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Why has the situation remained unchanged since our last report regarding prisoners being constantly located in the CSU due to their complex and challenging behaviour and mental health issues?
Ministry of Justice
Mental Health
Recommendation 3
How will the Minister address this problem (unavailability of courses) that can sometimes mean prisoners are unable to meet their sentence plan?
Ministry of Justice
Education
Recommendation 4
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
We ask once again what steps will the Prison Service take to reduce the operational capacity of the prison?
HMPPS
Overcrowding
Recommendation 5
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
We ask again what will the Prison Service do to address this problem (churn of prisoners with a short time to serve on their sentences)?
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 6
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
How does the Prison Service plan to improve the training of inexperienced staff?
HMPPS
Staffing
Recommendation 7
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
What measures will the Prison Service take to tackle this situation (level of illegal substances in the prison) which has remained high?
HMPPS
Substance Misuse
Recommendation 8
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
How will the Prison Service improve the situation (prisoners' canteen problems) which can only be rectified by much better contract management at a higher level, in the Board’s view?
HMPPS
Food
Recommendation 9
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
How does the Prison Service plan to resolve this problem (loss of property and difficulty claiming compensation)?
HMPPS
Complaints
Recommendation 10
Could the Governor advise the Board on what new incentives schemes are being put forward for prisoners in the next period of time?
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 11
Can the Governor explain why (attendance of prisoners going to work) is the case and what the prison is proposing to do to improve the situation?
Governor / Director
Purposeful Activity
Recommendation 12
Could the Governor explain how the prison management is intending to rectify the situation (reconciliation of the roll) which is still not robust enough?
Governor / Director
Other
Recommendation 13
Could the Governor explain what will be done to rectify the situation (complaint forms, IMB complaint forms and IPCI ombudsman forms not being available on the house blocks)?
Governor / Director
Complaints
Other IMB Reports for Ranby
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.