INSPECTORS have spoken of their dismay at finding a continued lack of time out of cell and activities for the young men held in a County Durham training prison and young offender institution.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons was following up an inspection of HMP/YOI Deerbolt in Barnard Castle in July 2021, where inspectors judged purposeful activity to be poor – the lowest grade – and safety to be not sufficiently good.

Despite the prison holding only 270 young men, much lower than its usual capacity due to ongoing refurbishment, inspectors found empty workshops, a tiny number of prisoners in classrooms, and nearly two-thirds locked up during the working day – more than at the 2021 inspection.

Read more: Young inmates at Deerbolt locked in cells 23 hrs a day during Covid

Those not in work or education were spending up to 23 hours a day in their cells, and the aspiration of just 3.5 hours a day out of cell as Covid-19 restrictions lifted was far too low for a training prison.

Although there had been some progress in safety, such as improvements to the segregation unit and strengthening the oversight of use of force, violence between prisoners was higher than in 2021, some of which was very serious.

Use of force was also high.

Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, said: “With so little constructive time unlocked to engage or tire them out, we saw prisoners with their backs to the perimeter of the exercise yards, clearly anxious for their safety. Some of the footage of incidents we viewed left us deeply concerned.”

The prison was suffering from major staff shortages which meant that prisoners could not be reliably escorted to work and education, and which prevented the prison from restoring and safely running a full time working day for the population.

There was little to incentivise prisoners to behave better as they had so little to lose in terms of their daily regime. Very few had reliable support from a key worker.

Read more: Report raises concerns about overcrowding at HMP Durham

In-cell telephones had been introduced on all but one wing: a major improvement that allowed prisoners to keep in touch with family and friends. There was better supervision of medication queues and some early promise in consultation arrangements. But it remained frustrating that the prison had excellent facilities that were not being used and potential which was not being fulfilled.

Mr Taylor said: “We left without any assurance that managers would be able to deliver the safe and reliable full-time regime their population needed. They will need to move quickly to address staff shortages, restore purposeful activity and reduce the high levels of violence.”

 

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We are pleased that inspectors recognised our staff’s tireless work to improve safety.

“Restrictions continue to be eased in line with Government guidance and the prison is working through an action plan to ensure activities that the pandemic prevented can get back up and running.”

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