Responding to the latest Chief Inspector of Prisons report on HMP Wandsworth, Nacro CEO, Campbell Robb said:
“The recent Chief Inspector of Prisons report on HMP Wandsworth is a damning indictment of the state of our prisons’ amidst the overcrowding crisis. The report highlights alarming failings throughout HMP Wandsworth; from dangerous levels of overcrowding, to soaring rates of violence and squalid conditions reminiscent of a Victorian workhouse.
The fact that two-thirds of people in prison feel unsafe due to an unprecedented increase in serious assaults alone, should be cause for a radical intervention. Yet, it goes on to detail the fact that people are spending 22 hours locked in their cell, with few opportunities for work or education, ill-preparing people for release into the wider community.
The systematic failings which run from top to bottom throughout HMP Wandsworth reflect a broader pattern we’re seeing in prisons across England and Wales.
This report shatters any illusion that, in their current state, prisons are places for rehabilitation. It ought to serve as an arresting call, that alongside the roll out of their early release scheme in September, the Government must urgently create a long-term strategy to reduce the prison population as well as ensuring a rehabilitative approach at its core.”