Prison
Cat open, YOI
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Thorn Cross
IMB Annual Report 2025 · Published 18 July 2025
HMP/YOI Thorn Cross maintains a safe and rehabilitative environment with positive staff-prisoner relationships and strong support for education and community employment. Despite these strengths, significant concerns include an inadequate kitchen, persistent issues with illicit items, and challenges in mental health engagement. Delays in infrastructure projects and restricted gym access during non-working hours also require urgent attention.
Positive Findings
HMP/YOI Thorn Cross remains a safe establishment with low levels of violence and no self-harm incidents. The Board commends positive staff-prisoner relationships, good accommodation standards, and excellent health provision with good access to GPs and dental services. A strong rehabilitative culture supports tailored education and vocational training, leading to a notable increase in men working in the community and high employment rates post-release.
Key Concerns
Food/Catering
Repeated
The kitchen is inadequate for the size of the prison, with equipment needing replacement and a promised new kitchen delayed.
Substance Misuse
Illicit items, including steroids, continue to be brought in and found, leading to a worrying increase in adjudications.
Mental Health
Engagement challenges remain regarding mental health support, despite rebranding to ‘wellbeing’ and increased provision, leading to a persistently low caseload.
Overcrowding
Repeated
New arrivals are placed in double cells that the Board continues to feel are too small.
Estate/Conditions
The need to remove an existing unit by 2026-27, combined with long delays in planned capacity expansion, raises concerns about future accommodation.
Staffing
A shortage of skilled cleaners exists due to poor pay, leading to men seeking better-compensated work and units looking tired.
Healthcare
The increasing trend of men being transferred to Thorn Cross without their essential medication is a worrying concern.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Reduced gym access and activities during evenings and weekends, due to staffing restrictions, frustrates men, especially those working in the community.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
The new OMU building was demolished due to significant faults, leading to considerable delays and wasted resources, despite previous recommendations on monitoring building projects.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Problems with the unit phone system, coupled with a lack of in-cell phones, impact family contact and prisoner privacy.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staffing in the Offender Management Unit has increased, and permanent appointments have stabilised kitchen staffing. Control and restraint training is up-to-date for over 97% of staff. However, healthcare cover still relies on agency staff, and there is a noted shortage of skilled cleaners due to poor pay, leading to men seeking better-compensated work.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision under Practice Plus Group is generally good, with excellent drug and alcohol support. Mental health services have been rebranded as 'wellbeing' to reduce stigma, but engagement remains a challenge, leading to a persistently low caseload despite reported inmate anxiety. Concerns include an increasing number of men transferred without medication and high DNA rates for appointments, though a new advanced nurse practitioner helps mitigate reduced GP sessions.
Regime & Daily Life
Prisoners benefit from units unlocked for most of the day and ample outdoor spaces, promoting wellbeing. The popular gym is restricted to one session daily, and reduced weekend and evening access frustrates men working in the community. Issues with evening meal provision for external workers have improved, now allowing for more dignified dining within the prison.
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 | 5 | 2 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogues | 0 | 0 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 0 | 0 | |
| Equality | 0 | 0 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 0 | 2 | |
| Food and kitchens | 1 | 1 | — |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 1 | 4 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions | 0 | 5 | |
| Miscellaneous | 0 | 0 | |
| Property during transfer or in another facility | 4 | 2 | |
| Property within the establishment | 1 | 0 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell | 3 | 0 | |
| Sentence management, including HDC, ROTL, parole, release dates, re-categorisation | 8 | 18 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 0 | 1 | |
| Transfers | 1 | 0 |
Recommendations (11)
Ministry of Justice: 1
HMPPS: 5
Governor / Director: 5
3 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. addressed
What plans are there to reduce the number of men serving imprisonment for public protection sentences? (7.3.2)
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Response
Re-sentencing is not taking place, but the sentence has been reformed by bringing to end the licence period earlier for those prisoners. 1,742 licences were terminated automatically on 1 November 2024 and approximately 600 are being referred to the parole board to consider termination as part of the provisions of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024.
Recommendation 2
Repeated
When will the coverage provided by CCTV be improved? (4.5.4)
HMPPS
Safety
Recommendation 3
What plans are there to replace the Sycamore course with another restorative justice programme? (5.5.2)
HMPPS
Education
Recommendation 4
What is being done to reduce the number of men who arrive without their medication? (6.1.8)
HMPPS
Healthcare
Recommendation 5
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
A new building was almost complete when it had to be demolished because there were so many faults with it. What lessons have been learnt to prevent this happening again? (7.3.4)
HMPPS
Estate
Response
Problems with the OMU building were identified through assurance processes that are in place. No additional assurance processes have been put in place, so it is unclear how this will be prevented in the future.
Recommendation 6
What plans are there to introduce in-cell phones? (7.4.3)
HMPPS
Regime
Recommendation 7
How is the work of the unit for men serving long sentences to be evaluated? (5.1.2)
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 8
What plans are there to ensure there are adequate numbers of skilled cleaners? (5.1.4)
Governor / Director
Staffing
Recommendation 9
Are the current arrangements for prisoner consultation through consultative committees and the Queensland meeting as effective as they could be? (5.3.2)
Governor / Director
Respect
Recommendation 10
What plans are there to increase the opening hours of the gym in the evenings and at weekends? (6.5.4)
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 11
What steps have been put in place to ensure that men are not incorrectly released? (7.3.3)
Governor / Director
Safety
Other IMB Reports for Thorn Cross
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
2 May 2023
Unannounced
Safety: 4
Respect: 3
Activity: 4
Release: 4
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.