Prisoners ‘held beyond release date’ at Pentonville

Prisoners are “living in squalid and chaotic conditions” while backlogs in sentence calculations means some being released too early and others held after they should have been freed, according to HM Inspectorate of Prisons.

There was “a widespread lack of care” for prisoners at risk of self-harm, with wardens supposed to care for those needing constant supervision who were found to be reading books, asleep and in one case absent — despite three suicides this year alone.

An ‘Urgent Notification’ has been issued to the Justice Secretary by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor.

“Pentonville is an overcrowded Victorian prison,” Mr Taylor found. “Too many staff have become disillusioned about improvement or change to turn this failing prison around.” 

Levels of violence were high, driven by drugs made easily available. Cells were missing essentials like bedding, furniture and pillows. Most inmates were spending 22 hours out of 24 locked up with nothing to do.

There were some committed staff — but others “seemed to have given up”. 

The chaotic state of Pentonville has brought condemnation from the Nacro social justice charity, which campaigns to reduce crime and support ex-offenders.

Nacro’s chief executive Campbell Robb said: “These findings are shocking. Prisoners held unlawfully beyond their release date, others let out early in error, high levels of drug-fuelled violence and people at risk of self-harm without supervision.”

The charity calls for investment to tackle the root causes of offending and believes “everyone deserves a second chance”. Only then it believes the cycle can be broken to create a safer society. 

Prisons minister Lord James Timpson visited Pentonville last Thursday and insisted concerns raised by the inspectors are being addressed. An ‘action plan’ is being published in the coming weeks.

The minister said: “This government will end the chaos we inherited in our jails. We are building 14,000 new prison places and reforming sentencing so that our jails reduce reoffending and cut crime.”

The Ministry of Justice acknowledges Pentonville’s conditions and says it is addressing overcrowding, early releases in error and inadequate care for vulnerable inmates. Ten prisoners “were released early in due to errors in sentence calculations” but the Ministry was working to rectify this in future. 

Prison staff are also working with the police to tackle drug issues at Pentonville. 

The ‘safer custody’ team has now been given more resources to keep vulnerable inmates safe and to improve assessments of self-harm.

The inspectors are returning within a year to Pentonville, which is holding 1,200 prisoners despite having capacity for only 900, to see of ‘substantial improvements’ have been made and if sentence calculation “is being done right”.