Prison
Cat local, YOI
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Elmley
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 21 January 2025
HMP Elmley faces significant challenges, notably an "intolerable" fire safety risk in House Block 5 and generally deteriorating accommodation. While healthcare and equality initiatives show improvement, safety remains a concern with increased self-harm and use of force incidents, exacerbated by poor key working and inconsistent reception processes. Education attendance is low, and there's a need for more purposeful activity.
Positive Findings
HMP Elmley has made improvements in reception and induction processes, equality and diversity initiatives, and healthcare provision, with staffing levels for healthcare enhanced. The chaplaincy team has improved its support, and the weekly Use of Force meetings are effective in reviewing and improving practice. Education quality is good, and prisoners generally value work opportunities, including the Shannon Trust's literacy and numeracy support.
Key Concerns
Safety
Good practice in reception and induction processes for new prisoners is not consistently embedded, leading to concerns about kit shortages and phone access.
Safety
Repeated
A significant number of prisoners do not feel safe, citing worries about violence and mental health, with incidents of violence having increased compared to the previous year.
Safety
The Prison Service has been too slow to replace razor blades with safer electric shavers, despite them being the main instrument of self-harm.
Estate/Conditions
House block 5 poses an intolerable risk to safety due to a high likelihood of fire and extreme harm consequences for life safety, with the Board deeming its continued operation unacceptable.
Safety
ACCT plans are not effectively quality assured by the prison, potentially putting vulnerable prisoners at risk due to inconsistent quality and data management issues.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Key working is insufficiently developed, with only around 20% of expected sessions occurring weekly, and many prisoners unaware of their key worker or its purpose.
Mental Health
The Listener scheme has ceased, detracting from the culture of safer custody and leaving vulnerable prisoners without this specific support.
Safety
Use of force incidents have increased significantly, with a clear disparity where black prisoners are more than twice as likely to be restrained than white prisoners.
Safety
The prison does not comply with the expectation for independent scrutiny of Use of Force incidents and Discrimination Incident Reporting Forms (DIRFs).
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
The quality of existing accommodation continues to deteriorate, with dirty/broken showers, insect infestations, and heating breakdowns, requiring substantial investment.
Food/Catering
The quality and nutritional value of prison food are subjects of regular complaint, with the Board assessing shortcomings despite financial limits.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Education provision, despite improved teaching quality, is hampered by unacceptably low attendance levels (e.g., 73% in September 2024), often due to staff failing to collect prisoners.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Vocational provision is of variable quality, with limited opportunities for prisoners to gain useful work-based skills or directly improve the prison environment.
Mental Health
Prisoners with complex mental health needs are occasionally placed in the CSU for lengthy periods (e.g., 42 and 79 days) due to delays in transfer to suitable mental health facilities.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Time out of cell for prisoners not engaged in purposeful activity remains low, with individuals spending 21-22 hours per day locked in their cells, especially in evenings and weekends.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Elmley has seen a significant intake of new staff, with many officers in their first two years of service, leading to some inconsistency in adherence to basic procedures. While staff and prisoner interactions are generally good, with experienced staff often defusing difficult situations, there have been instances of inappropriate officer behavior. Low staff availability also impacts the delivery of key working sessions.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision at Elmley, delivered by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, has improved, with reduced waiting times for GP and dental appointments comparable to community standards. Staffing levels have increased for mental health nurses, though the psychiatrist post is not fully filled. A significant number of prisoners have complex mental health needs, leading to distressing situations in the in-patients department (IPD), and transfers for secure mental healthcare sometimes exceed prescribed time limits.
Regime & Daily Life
The daily regime at HMP Elmley is often unpredictable, largely due to staff absences and redeployments, leading to prisoners spending 21-22 hours a day locked in their cells, especially evenings and weekends. Time out of cell is low, and purposeful activity is hampered by poor education attendance. Recreational facilities are sometimes unusable due to missing equipment.
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 | 8 | 10 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogue(s) | 5 | 13 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 9 | 10 | |
| Equality | 1 | 7 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 5 | 7 | |
| Food and kitchens | 14 | 6 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 70 | 59 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection restrictions | 6 | 14 | |
| Miscellaneous, including complaints system | 0 | 42 | |
| Property during transfer or in another establishment or location | 6 | 29 | |
| Property within this establishment | 13 | 38 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, library, regime, time out of cell | 10 | 7 | |
| Sentence management, including HDC (home detention curfew), ROTL (release on temporary licence), parole, release dates, recategorisation | 6 | 70 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 22 | 58 | |
| Transfers | 2 | 3 |
Recommendations (10)
Ministry of Justice: 2
HMPPS: 2
Governor / Director: 6
1 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Substantial investment is required to bring existing accommodation up to an acceptable standard. Aspects, including access to clean, working showers and reliable heating are insufficient and provision continues to deteriorate.
Ministry of Justice
Estate
Recommendation 2
Prisoners - and staff - are at substantial risk of serious harm due to the fire safety issues on house block 5. The Minister must take urgent action to address this very worrying problem and preclude its use as a residential house block until the risk is effectively mitigated.
Ministry of Justice
Safety
Recommendation 3
Improve funding for vocational work-based opportunities for prisoners to support effective transition back into legitimate paid employment on release and promote greater opportunities for prisoners to directly improve their living environment.
HMPPS
Progression and resettlement
Recommendation 4
Remove prisoners’ access to razor blades as an instrument of self-harm and replace these with safer electric shavers.
HMPPS
Safety
Recommendation 5
Work with external partners to reinstate the prisoner Listener scheme, as a matter of urgency, to support a culture of safer custody.
Governor / Director
Mental Health
Recommendation 6
Identify the reasons why black prisoners are twice as likely to be subject to the use of force when compared with white prisoners and put in place effective strategies to reduce the disproportionality.
Governor / Director
Equality
Recommendation 7
Ensure that UoF reviews and discrimination incident reporting forms are independently scrutinised to ensure procedures are fair and transparent.
Governor / Director
Safety
Recommendation 8
Deliver 45 minutes of effective key working to all prisoners on a weekly basis, in line with national expectations.
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 9
Address the inconsistency in the quality of ACCT documents through effective quality assurance.
Governor / Director
Safety
Recommendation 10
Improve arrangements for ensuring that prisoners attend education classes and healthcare appointments routinely on time.
Governor / Director
Regime
Other IMB Reports for Elmley
2023
Published 17 Jul 2025
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.