The prisons inspectorate has reported that prison officers largely respond poorly to applications for basic requests, leaving prisoners feeling ‘frustrated’ and disrespected.
The survey, based on 5,431 responses, covers inspections of closed prisons for both men and women. It investigates inmates’ satisfaction with prison officers’ engagement with their requests for various basic needs, such as washing clothes, additional toilet rolls, and scheduling health care appointments.
Prison facilities use paper and electronic applications to provide prisoners with opportunities to request their needs. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) found that paper-based applications were much less effective. A prisoner in HMP Brixton commented ‘it takes weeks to get a reply if you’re lucky’. In comparison, with the new digital applications, more than 100,000 applications were made at HMP Garth, with a prison population of 800, in a year.
The report further detailed the failure to deliver tear-off receipts of received applications, with 5 out of the 7 inspected prisons unable to show any engagement with the timeliness of replies, allowing officers to disregard criticisms about the system, ‘undermining notions of procedural justice and respectful treatment of prisoners.’
Efforts to roll out in-cell laptops began in 2021, with the Ministry of Justice vowing to us them to ‘support rehabilitation.’ HMIP found that the introduction of laptops in late 2024, with over 13,000 prisoners having been made available to the initiative, had led to feelings of ‘greater control of aspects of their lives.’
However, the quality of responses has not improved despite the digitised system. Assessing both systems of applications, the survey showed no significant differences – prisoners find that the way staff respond to requests has stayed the same. The delay in response has left prisoners feeling a ‘lack of respect’.
Ryan Harman, the Head of Advice and Information at Prison Reform Trust, added that it is ‘not only a sign of respect, but is also more time efficient than dealing with the problems and frustrations that result from not doing so.’
The report highlighted that delays contributed to violence, self-harm, and disproportionate consequences – problems that timely responses could have prevented. The Justice Gap reported on a similar concerns of no ‘meaningful interaction’ with staff that arose at HMP Wandsworth following an inmate suicide.
Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, remarked that it is ‘much less evident that leaders and staff understand their vital role in resolving prisoner problems.’
