Appalling and outrageous: Urgent notification for Pentonville prison represents new low for public service on brink of collapse

The Howard League for Penal Reform has responded after HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, announced today (Friday 18 July) that he has issued an urgent notification to the Secretary of State for Justice about Pentonville prison.

Inspectors visited the London prison between 30 June and 10 July and found it to be chaotic, with a significant backlog in sentence calculations meaning that some people had been released early by mistake and many more were held after they should have been freed.

Staff tasked with looking after men at imminent risk of self-harm, who required constant supervision, were instead found to be reading books, sleeping, or in one case completely absent.

Conditions were squalid, with most men spending more than 22 hours a day locked inside their cells with nothing to do. Forty-four per cent of the men surveyed said that they felt unsafe at the time of the inspection – the highest figure recorded by the inspectorate in a reception prison in recent times.

Official figures show that, at the end of May, Pentonville had room to accommodate 905 men safely and decently – but it was actually holding 1,198. It is the 10^th prison to be issued with an urgent notification since November 2022.

Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The details emerging from this inspection are appalling and outrageous, and they represent a new low for an overcrowded and under-resourced public service that stands on the brink of collapse.

“While the government inherited a dire state of affairs in prisons, it has had more than a year to bring about change. As report cards go, such a dire account of dysfunction in Pentonville instils little confidence that ministers have a grip of the situation.”

Notes to editors

1. The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the world. It is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.
2. The Chief Inspector’s letter to the Secretary of State for Justice about Pentonville prison will be published on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website.
3. For detailed analysis of how sentencing policy failures have contributed to the prison capacity crisis, read the explainer article ‘What is sentence inflation?’
4. For more information about the prison overcrowding crisis, read the explainer article ‘Why are prisons overcrowded?’

Contact

Rob Preece
Communications Manager
Tel: +44 (0)7714 604955
Email: [email protected]