Prison
Cat B local
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Chelmsford
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 5 December 2024
HMP Chelmsford, a category B local prison, faced significant challenges during the reporting year ending August 2024, particularly with overcrowding affecting 69% of its population and leading to poor conditions in older wings. While the prison saw a reduction in self-harm incidents towards the end of the year and staff were commended for managing gym facilities, use of force incidents increased, and access to healthcare remained a major concern with substantial waiting times. Processes for safeguarding prisoner property and approving telephone PINs were consistently problematic, hindering rehabilitation and family contact, although the introduction of the Launchpad system was a notable success.
Positive Findings
HMP Chelmsford has made improvements in several areas, including enhanced safety for most prisoners and a notable reduction in self-harm incidents towards the end of the reporting year. The Board commends staff for managing the gym and sports facilities, which are highly valued and improve mental and physical health. The introduction of the Launchpad computer system has been successful, leading to a drop in IMB applications, and the prison management is praised for overall improvements. The library's various initiatives for prisoner wellbeing and development are also a point of pride.
Key Concerns
Overcrowding
Repeated
Overcrowding: 69% of prisoners share cells designed for one person. This conflicts with the requirements of decency and respect and is in contravention of the United Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. The Board noted that, because of this overcrowding and pressure on space, some of the cells in the Victorian wings (A, B, C and D) continued to be occupied in winter, despite their damp and mouldy conditions.
Other
Our most significant concerns are the processes for safeguarding prisoners’ property (particularly during intra-Chelmsford moves). Property is often high on the list of issues at HMP Chelmsford and this year was no exception. Our stats show a 48% increase in applications concerning property at the prison and a 500% increase in problems concerning prisoner property from a previous establishment. We are still very concerned about the processes adopted by the prison when property is moved following a man’s relocation within the prison, most often to the CSU. We still saw prisoners’ property, sent in by family, getting completely lost and there appeared to be a reluctance to discover how – and why – this had happened.
Healthcare
Repeated
Healthcare-related IMB applications remain the most numerous, increasing by 148% over the last reporting period. Health is the number one issue in the prison. Problems that prisoners had in obtaining an optician’s appointment are best summed up in two pieces of information: The optician only visited the prison one day per month during the reporting period, and on 1 May 2024, the optician had 52 people on their waiting list. A double transfer of prisoners awaiting healthcare was delayed because the lift in the healthcare unit was out of order. The majority of prisoners found it ‘quite difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ to see a doctor, nurse, dentist, pharmacist and mental health worker.
Safety
Repeated
Use of force (UoF) has increased for the second successive year, mainly accounted for by an increase in guiding holds, but also driven by a renewed focus on using full control and restraint (C&R) techniques during planned moves as a way of reducing violence towards officers. The Board still finds the number of UoF incidents to be high. The total use of force incidents increased by 18%, the second successive year of significant rises. The Board considers this level of use of force to be high.
Education/Purposeful Activity
The awarding of educational and work qualifications was haphazard and needs improving. The Board found that some men were often forced to wait too long for their certificate of qualification, and in some cases, prisoners didn’t appear to be too sure of the qualification they had actually achieved. There was serious disruption to the bio-cleaning course after the instructor suddenly left. Bio-cleaning qualifications are not transferrable from establishment to establishment. Some men were banned from mass move, only being allowed to work on their own wing, and others were unable to work and left on the wing all day doing nothing.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
The approval of men’s telephone PINs was slow, occasionally unsatisfactory, and frustrating. The phone PIN and number approval process continued to be slow and, on occasion, unsatisfactory. The Board received many complaints about the time taken for contact numbers to be added to a prisoner’s PIN: in a lot of cases this ran to several weeks. Too often IMB heard that new prisoners were unable to call family or their solicitor for weeks after arriving in the prison. Officers appeared slow in handling PIN applications, and many didn’t seem to understand the importance of this process.
Board Commentary
Staffing
While staff are generally effective in managing violence and gang-related issues, and key worker sessions have significantly increased, prisoners often report not knowing their key worker or having limited contact. Staff morale in the CSU appeared to decline in summer 2024. The Board notes that officers' failure to follow through on promises remains an issue, and understanding of neurodiversity among staff is limited. Recruitment and retention of Listeners is a concern, with numbers well below target.
Healthcare
Healthcare remains the top issue, with applications increasing by 148%. Prisoners face significant challenges accessing doctors, nurses, dentists, and mental health workers, with delays for optician appointments and mental health transfers being a particular concern. The prescription and distribution of medication are challenging, with instances of misuse contributing to negative behaviours, and abuse towards pharmacy staff noted. The Board also observed that essential helpline numbers for support services are inadequately displayed.
Regime & Daily Life
Overcrowding remains a significant issue, with 69% of prisoners sharing single cells and 27 cells out of commission, particularly affecting the old Victorian wings which suffer from damp and mould. Regime stability is difficult due to the constantly changing population. Daily life is impacted by intermittent TV aerial failures, slow phone maintenance, and cold showers. Education attendance fell during the summer due to clashes with other activities, prompting a prison-wide regime change in August 2024 to address these issues.
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 | 68 | 6 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogues | 16 | 6 | |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 20 | 2 | |
| Equality | 22 | 9 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 4 | 7 | |
| Food and kitchens | 12 | 12 | — |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 104 | 42 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions | 52 | 20 | |
| Miscellaneous | 32 | 18 | |
| Property during transfer or in another facility | 12 | 2 | |
| Property within the establishment | 43 | 29 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell | 28 | 2 | |
| Sentence management, including HDC (home detention curfew), ROTL (release on temporary licence), parole, release dates, recategorisation | 39 | 18 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 69 | 34 | |
| Transfers | 7 | 2 |
Recommendations (4)
Ministry of Justice: 1
HMPPS: 1
Governor / Director: 2
2 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
In previous years, the Board has highlighted many issues concerning life in HMP Chelmsford and the wider prison system. To our dismay, this has mostly led to the various Ministry of Justice Minsters doing little or nothing to address those concerns. Our voices need not only to be heard but actively listened to.
Ministry of Justice
Other
Recommendation 2
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The Board asks, again (as in our previous report), how does the Prison Service plan to eliminate overcrowding? A total of 69% of men in HMP Chelmsford share cells designed for single occupancy. This conflicts with the requirements of decency and respect and is in contravention of the United Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. The Board noted that, because of this overcrowding and pressure on space, some of the cells in the Victorian wings (A, B, C and D) continued to be occupied in winter, despite their damp and mouldy conditions. This is an unsatisfactory situation.
HMPPS
Overcrowding
Recommendation 3
The Board would like to pay tribute to the Governor, Acting Governor, and also to the Deputy Governor and Acting Deputy Governor, for all the improvements seen at HMP Chelmsford over the past three years. There is, though, still lots of work to be done. We would like to see scrutiny of, and improvements made to, many of the processes used by staff to manage various aspects of prison life, notably property, neurodiversity and body scanning. In particular, the process around property losses resulting from wing moves desperately needs fixing.
Governor / Director
Other
Recommendation 4
The Board recommends that the senior management team introduce targets for key operational areas, such as, for example, violence, self-harm and property loss. We believe this would drive a proactive culture of focusing on causes and defining actions.
Governor / Director
Safety
Other IMB Reports for Chelmsford
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
22 Jan 2024
Unannounced
Safety: 2
Respect: 2
Activity: 2
Release: 2
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.