Brixton prison failed to reduce risk of sexual offenders ahead of release, report finds

A prison failed to provide education and training or reduce the risk of sexual offenders ahead of their release, a report has found.

HMP Brixton is a category C training and resettlement prison with a large proportion of men convicted of sexual offences and with significant levels of mental health need and substance misuse.

Despite about 140 men being released each month, the prison failed to prepare prisoners for their return back into the community, a report by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons has found.

The report, from an unannounced inspection in June, found there remained no accredited offending behaviour programmes, which hampered work to reduce risk, especially for those convicted of sexual offences.

Although efforts were made to negotiate the transfer of prisoners to other prisons that offered suitable programmes, no prisoners had been transferred for that purpose at the time of the inspection.

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, said: “We met many dedicated staff at Brixton and found much to commend, but fundamentally the prison was failing to deliver on its intended role as a training and resettlement prison.”

With 66 per cent of prisoners in shared cells designed for one person, Brixton is the most overcrowded category C prison in the country.

The report said: “Cells designed with toilets in the middle made it impossible to have enough furniture for two prisoners, and fresh air out of these cramped, dirty cells was limited.”

Some prisoners had just 45 minutes a day to shower and go outside. 

Self-harm had increased by 38 per cent since the previous inspection. The report said: “Learning from near misses did not always take place and night staff did not routinely carry anti-ligature knives or know who in their care was at risk of self-harm.”

Despite the jail’s location, which the Chief Inspector said offered “unique advantages” in terms of employment opportunities, up to 25 per cent of the prison’s population remained unemployed.

At the time of the inspection the employment hub was closed and the employment advisory board had been disbanded.

The report also found inadequate provision of education, skills and work. There were insufficient activity spaces on courses prisoners needed to study and many work and education sessions did not take place at all.

With nothing to do with their time and confined to their cells, the inspection found many prisoners had turned to drugs.

At the time of the inspection, 450 prisoners received support for substance misuse and 42 per cent of prisoners said it was easy to get illicit drugs. 

A ‘safety summit’ on the causes of violence connected drugs, mobiles and debt as the main drivers, but initiatives like this were yet to have an “impact on effective action or change”, the report said. 

No prisoners were being released on temporary licence and many staff told inspectors that the prison did not have enough space or infrastructure to be an effective category C resettlement jail. 

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “The new Government inherited a justice system in crisis and has been forced to take action across the prison estate so we can continue to lock up dangerous offenders, protect the public and make prisons safer for hard-working staff.

“HMP Brixton has already made significant strides in addressing the concerns raised in this report, including bolstered supervision for offenders on release, refurbishment works on the wings and using its X-Ray scanner and intelligence-led cell searches to clamp down on illicit items entering the prison.”

Pictured top: Brixton prison (Picture: HMI Prisons)