Prison
Cat C
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Northumberland
IMB Annual Report 2023 · Published 5 July 2024
HMP Northumberland, a category C prison, is generally assessed as safe, despite a slight increase in violent incidents and self-harm. Significant progress has been made in primary healthcare provision, staff-prisoner relationships, and a revised regime aims to boost purposeful activity. However, the Board holds severe and repeated concerns regarding the profound lack of appropriate mental health provision, leading to the inappropriate use of segregation for acutely unwell prisoners, alongside challenges with education attendance and property management.
Positive Findings
The Board welcomes the new Director's ambitious plans for improvements in progression and resettlement, and is generally satisfied with the fair and humane treatment of prisoners. Significant advancements have been made in primary healthcare, with a full-time GP eliminating waiting lists and dental waiting times reduced, earning commendation for the healthcare team. There have also been investments in cell equipment, improved cleanliness, and effective strategies for reducing illicit items. Strong staff-prisoner relationships, good chaplaincy support, and valuable rehabilitation programmes like TSP, HORIZON, and NMS are noted positively.
Key Concerns
Mental Health
Repeated
The Board remains concerned about the availability of mental health support for prisoners and the delay in identifying appropriate placements for prisoners with serious mental health conditions.
Mental Health
The Care and Separation Unit (CSU) is inappropriately used to house prisoners with severe mental health conditions, with some individuals remaining on Rule 45 beyond the maximum 42 days, causing significant deterioration and impacting untrained staff.
Staffing
Significant recruitment challenges persist within the mental health team and for key healthcare posts, such as the medicine management pharmacist, placing pressure on existing staff and impacting service delivery.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Very low levels of attendance on main education delivery, frequently as low as 50%, combined with early session closures, result in a significant amount of lost learning time for prisoners.
Education/Purposeful Activity
A weakness in the curriculum delivery on both main and VP estates is the limited opportunity to engage in the arts, with no regular provision for drama or music despite expressed prisoner interest.
Complaints/Property
Numerous complaints arise concerning prisoner property going missing during cell clearances or transfers from other prisons, highlighting a need for improved inter-prison liaison and communication with prisoners about property handling.
Education/Purposeful Activity
The capacity of the single qualified Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) is insufficient to service the needs of the growing prison population in the North of England, making effective identification and assessment of learning difficulties extremely challenging.
Mental Health
There is no dedicated service for men with a dual diagnosis (mental health and substance misuse), which could place this high-risk group in further danger.
Resettlement/Release
The public protection unit faces a backlog of applications from prisoners for social visits, impacting family contact and resettlement efforts.
Estate/Conditions
The reception area feels cramped given the volume of new arrivals, and the Board is not convinced that the recent move of the early days in custody (EDiC) unit has led to improvements in the induction programme.
Estate/Conditions
The Care and Separation Unit's (CSU) extractor system is not powerful enough, leading to persistent damp issues despite some improvements to showers.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Current Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) provision is not ideal, as prisoners with English as a first language and those for whom it is not are often taught together.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staff-prisoner relationships are consistently observed to be good or very good, with staff described as friendly, helpful, and professional. The safety team has seen increased staffing, and the key worker support newsletter has been reintroduced. However, the mental health team has faced persistent recruitment challenges, impacting service delivery, and the crucial medicine management pharmacist post remains difficult to fill.
Healthcare
The Board commends Spectrum for significant improvements in healthcare provision, particularly in primary care, under strong leadership. The appointment of a full-time GP and advanced nurse practitioner has eliminated GP waiting lists, and dental waiting times have notably reduced. While a psychologist was appointed, the mental health team still faces recruitment challenges. A critical concern remains the inappropriate housing of severe mental health cases in the Care and Separation Unit due to a lack of specialist placements, and the absence of a dedicated service for men with dual diagnoses.
Regime & Daily Life
The new Director implemented a revised regime in December 2023 to incentivise purposeful activity. This includes structured daily periods for work and education, totalling 5 hours 25 minutes, complemented by an hour of evening association. Prisoners not engaging in activities now spend the majority of their day in cells, with a policy change ensuring all prisoners under retirement age are expected to participate in work or education, backed by privilege downgrades for non-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 | 2 | 5 | |
| Canteen, facility list, catalogues | 4 | 4 | — |
| Discipline, including adjudications, incentives scheme, sanctions | 5 | 3 | |
| Equality | 2 | 3 | |
| Finance, including pay, private monies, spends | 7 | 7 | — |
| Food and kitchens | 2 | 5 | |
| Health, including physical, mental, social care | 25 | 40 | |
| Letters, visits, telephones, public protection, restrictions | 6 | 12 | |
| Property during transfer or in another facility | 12 | 24 | |
| Property within the establishment | 11 | 21 | |
| Purposeful activity, including education, work, training, time out of cell | 8 | 15 | |
| Sentence management, including HDC (home detention curfew), ROTL (release on temporary parole), release dates, re-categorisation | 15 | 19 | |
| Staff/prisoner concerns, including bullying | 29 | 20 | |
| Transfers | 6 | 21 |
Other IMB Reports for Northumberland
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.