The use of force on a category B prison on the Isle of Sheppey had ‘gone up significantly’ despite levels of violence at the jail being lower than average for similar prisons across England and Wales, according to a new report published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons on Tuesday.
The report on at HMP Elmley was released following a surprise inspection conducted earlier this year recorded that there had been 361 uses of force in the past year – approximately 20% higher than at the last inspection. Inmates at the jail currently holding around 1,000 men told inspectors that they had been assaulted by staff members who deliberately did not turn on their body-worn cameras.
Inspectors noted that this rise in the use of force against prisoners had occurred ‘even though prisoners were locked up or subject to a more restricted regime’ in comparison to the previous inspection in 2019. Many incidents – including those involving the use of batons or PAVA incapacitant spray – had not been recorded on body-worn cameras. Investigations into violent incidents were not always thorough, and in some cases there had been no investigation at all, with ‘little evidence that lessons were learned’ from those incidents that were investigated.
Systems designed to understand and respond to the underlying causes of violence were ‘underdeveloped’, making it difficult to assess whether the use of force in a particular case had been reasonable or proportionate. While prisoner-on-prisoner violence had decreased, half of prisoners said they had experienced bullying and victimisation by staff members, and one in four said they did not feel safe in the prison. Among the prison’s foreign national population, the number of prisoners reporting that they currently felt unsafe rose to one in two.
Violence was not the only issue raised in the report. On each of the four ‘healthy prison test’ criteria – safety, respect, purposeful activity, and rehabilitation and release planning – inspectors rated outcomes for prisoners ‘not sufficiently good’ – the second-lowest possible grade. Education provision was rated ‘inadequate’ in four out of five key areas. The report also highlighted concerns about the end of the mental health screening pilot, shortages of healthcare staff, and the fact that HMP Elmley received ‘more complaints than any other local prison’, with Chief Inspector Charlie Taylor commenting that responses to these complaints ‘were neither timely nor helpful […] leading to greater prisoner frustration’.
Inspectors raised concerns about the treatment of foreign nationals who made up 18% of the population – for example, they were often not given an induction in a language they understood and there was no senior lead appointed for the group. ‘We heard several complaints from prisoners about racist attitudes from some staff,’ the report noted.
