Prison
Cat C
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
The Mount
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 1 August 2024
HMP The Mount has demonstrated significant progress over the last year, particularly in staffing, regime improvement, and the management of safety for vulnerable prisoners. However, profound systemic issues persist, notably the inhumane and unsupported detention of IPP prisoners, and chronic overcrowding due to cell doubling. The prison continues to struggle with pervasive drug availability and inadequate external support for resettlement, leading to high rates of homelessness upon release.
Positive Findings
The Board highlights significant positive changes over the last year, including improved staffing levels, increased staff retention, and reduced sickness, which have allowed for a much-improved regime with prisoners spending more time out of their cells. Safety management has significantly improved, particularly in supporting troubled prisoners. Physical healthcare is broadly on par with community provision, and mental healthcare is generally good, with fewer referrals. The prison estate is clean and well-maintained, and the kitchen performs well on a modest budget. Staff in the care and separation unit are exemplary, and key work sessions are resuming.
Key Concerns
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
The continued detention of prisoners long after they have served the punitive part of their sentence can only be morally justified if they are given all the support they need to become ready for release and if the conditions for such release are clear and objective. This should not be conditional on their being able to demonstrate that they are highly unlikely to be a danger. The burden of proof should be reversed.
Mental Health
Repeated
The prison is not able to provide these prisoners with much in the way of programmes, courses or support to help them progress towards release; instead, these men are, to all intents and purposes, being ‘warehoused’. Talking with IPP prisoners can be heart-breaking, as they report themselves losing hope and fight, seeing their families drift away from them and suffering what amounts, in the view of the Board, to PTSD if they are unable to secure release on licence.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The congestion and delays in the criminal justice system are having knock-on effects on the prison. So many prisoners are being held on remand in the category B local prisons that prisoners are being sent to The Mount to serve short sentences. They are not in The Mount for long enough to benefit from any training or rehabilitation, but managing their admission, induction and release on licence takes significant resources. At the other end of the scale, prisoners are being sent to category D prisons very readily. This means the prison no longer has a body of prisoners working towards category D re-categorisation who can be trusted with orderly and other roles that can only be filled by low-risk prisoners (e.g. farms and gardens).
Overcrowding
Repeated
The Mount is overcrowded, with too many prisoners held (9.3%) in double cells that are designed for only one person. As a temporary measure, this could be considered acceptable; as a short, medium, or long-term solution, it is not. A continuing concern is the conversion of 48 single cells to hold two prisoners. These lack any personal privacy and storage space for personal possessions and cannot ever be adapted to hold two prisoners in conditions that the Board would regard as humane.
Substance Misuse
Repeated
Drugs are still rife and while the incentivised substance-free living wing, has helped, there is too little support to help prisoners give up drugs. The delay in the Governor’s initiative to only allow single-use, tamper-free vapes to prisoners, which would have been expected to reduce the opportunities to use Spice, apparently for administrative and/or contractual issues outside of his control, is regrettable. The trafficking of illicit items into the prison remains a huge problem, with drugs and mobile phones being widely available. Much of the prison is not protected by netting. Cells have window grills that can be loosened to allow access for drones or for the ‘fishing’ from cell windows of packages dropped by drones or thrown over.
Resettlement/Release
Repeated
The housing crisis and shortage of approved premises mean that around 50% of the men released will be homeless and end up sleeping rough.
Education/Purposeful Activity
The prison does not have enough training and education places: about 400 in the morning and again in the afternoon for more than 1,000 prisoners.
Equality/Diversity
The prison has few facilities for disabled prisoners, wheelchair access across the estate is very poor and there are long distances between some residential wings and facilities such as healthcare, education, the visits’ hall and workshops, which are often open to the elements.
Board Commentary
Staffing
HMP The Mount is now fully staffed, with increased retention rates and falling sickness levels. These improvements are attributed to good leadership fostering an environment where staff feel supported and valued. However, many new recruits lack necessary basic training, requiring the prison to provide supplementary support. Staff-prisoner relationships have noticeably improved, with wing staff observed engaging confidently with prisoners. The prison is also resuming and working to improve the quality and quantity of key work sessions, which largely ceased during the pandemic.
Healthcare
Physical healthcare provision at The Mount is comparable to community standards, with fewer hospital appointment cancellations due to improved escort availability. Mental healthcare is generally good, and a welcome reduction in mental health referrals has been observed, likely linked to prisoners spending more time out of their cells. Dental waiting times have decreased by two-thirds. The care and separation unit ensures daily visits from a GP and mental health workers. Despite these positives, there were 147 healthcare-related complaints during the year, out of over 40,000 prisoner-healthcare contacts.
Regime & Daily Life
Staffing improvements have enabled a much-improved regime, with prisoners spending more time out of their cells and engaging in purposeful activities. However, despite these gains, there are insufficient opportunities for work or education, with only about 400 training and education places available for over 1,000 prisoners across morning and afternoon sessions. Overcrowding remains a significant concern, with 9.3% of the population held in single cells doubled-up for two, which lack adequate privacy and space. While the estate is generally clean, showers on some wings are in dire need of refurbishment, and the ongoing programme is not keeping pace with wear and tear.
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 | 2 | 2 | — |
| Dietary | 3 | 5 | |
| Health related | 30 | 25 | |
| Money | 1 | 2 | |
| Other | 19 | 19 | — |
| Personal issues | 25 | 28 | |
| Property | 47 | 56 | |
| Regime | 25 | 29 | |
| Safety | 0 | 1 | |
| Staff behaviour | 12 | 16 | |
| Visits | 6 | 4 | |
| Work, education and training | 8 | 10 |
Recommendations (6)
Ministry of Justice: 1
HMPPS: 4
Governor / Director: 1
3 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The continued detention of prisoners long after they have served the punitive part of their sentence can only be morally justified if they are given all the support they need to become ready for release and if the conditions for such release are clear and objective. This should not be conditional on their being able to demonstrate that they are highly unlikely to be a danger. The burden of proof should be reversed. THERE IS NO EXCUSE – THE NEW GOVERNMENT MUST MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 2
Repeated
The Prison Service should consider what can be done with existing resources to better support IPP prisoners (see §7.3.1).
HMPPS
Resettlement
Recommendation 3
Repeated
Significant funding is needed to improve The Mount’s defences against drones and throwovers (where people from outside the prison throw parcels, which contain illicit items, over the walls, to be picked up by prisoners) by replacing vulnerable cell windows and installing a comprehensive umbrella of netting, which is currently wholly inadequate. Partial measures will not suffice.
HMPPS
Safety
Recommendation 4
A system for the management of prisoners’ personal property should be developed that (a) ensures a much greater degree of accountability and responsibility for the safekeeping of such property, especially when a prisoner is being transferred, and (b) supports this objective by facilitating modern day ‘track and trace’ location monitoring – ideally using hardware and software rather than, as at present, paper and card (see §5.9).
HMPPS
Other
Recommendation 5
A proper data recording and management system should be introduced to replace the current use of myriad internally constructed spreadsheets and PowerPoint documents that are isolated, inconsistent and require too much manual involvement when reports or information are called for (see §9).
HMPPS
Other
Recommendation 6
The Board recommends that the Governor carries on with what he is doing, with major improvement visible in a number of areas. The proliferation of drugs remains an issue but, in the opinion of the Board, there is little more that The Mount itself can do without additional support in areas such as improved physical defences (see §3.3 above, §4.6, and §6.6) and – frankly – a better structured and resourced programme for those prisoners looking to come off (or stay off) drugs,
Governor / Director
Substance Misuse
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.