A NORTH-EAST prison housing some of the UK's most dangerous inmates was found to have maintained strong standards across the board, following an unannounced inspection.

Durham's HMP Frankland, which holds 840 adult men, has 250 men classified as category A, the highest security classification, while nine are considered as high-risk category. Almost all those held were serving sentences of longer than ten years, with the majority serving indeterminate or life sentences.

Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said: “The majority had committed the most serious, and often violent, offences and posed very great risks to the public. The security measures applied at Frankland, as well as the depth of custody experienced, reflected fully these risks.”

Findings at the inspection undertaken by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in January 2020 were similar to those in 2016.

Mr Clarke added: “A stable population meant daily movement through reception was limited, but new prisoners were received and inducted well. Most prisoners reported feeling safe and overall levels of violence were low, despite all the risks.

"Some good work was taking place to ensure this continued to be the case, and although use of force had increased, it remained lower than the level seen in similar prisons. Accountability for its use was generally good.”

Drug testing suggested that more illicit drugs were available than in comparison to other high security prisons, and prisoners said that drugs were easy to get hold of.

Case management of prisoners in crisis varied greatly, although prisoners in crisis who inspectors spoke to nevertheless felt cared for. Frankland remained a reasonably respectful prison: relationships were relaxed and informal, and most prisoners felt respected by staff. The environment and living conditions were satisfactory.

In the context of a settled and stable training establishment, Mr Clarke said, “We were surprised to find about 30 per cent of prisoners locked up during the working day, including the majority of those who had reached retirement age.

“That aside, leaders and managers had worked well together to ensure that the quality of regime and education offered was reasonably good.” Ofsted inspectors judged the overall provision of education, skills and work provision as ‘good’.

Public protection arrangements were robust and the prison had enough offending behaviour interventions to meet most need, augmented by some very good psychology-led one-to-one work.

Overall, Mr Clarke said: “Frankland is a large and complex high security prison with many challenges, managing some notable risks. The outcomes that prisoners experienced, despite this, continued to be good. We leave the prison with a number of recommendation we hope will assist further improvement.”

Phil Copple, prison and probation service director general of prisons, said: "Thanks to the hard work of the governor and his staff, most prisoners feel safe and levels of violence are low. Since this inspection, officers have received training to help vulnerable prisoners, there are more activities to encourage time out of cells, and the body scanner continues to limit the flow of drugs.”