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Buckley Hall Prison is a Category C male prison in the Buckley district of Rochdale in North West England. It is operated by His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service.
Safety: 4.1 Reception and Induction The transient population at Buckley Hall has led to problems in reception. Transfers in and out of Buckley Hall have increased to the point where staff are so busy processing them, property is being left for far too long before it goes up to the wings. This is exacerbated by continuous staff shortages. A Board member spoke to two new arrivals on the induction wing, who [...]
Respect: 5.1 Accommodation, clothing and food The accommodation and facilities at Buckley Hall are tired. Repairs carried out are not always of a high enough standard and quickly fail. The showers are regularly out of use, with water either too hot to stand under or running cold. The boilers have also failed throughout the year. The television signal is inconsistent across the prison and has been waiting [...]
Purposeful activity: The education department provide classes to support the men to gain basic Maths and English skills. Men are expected to gain Level 1 in both subjects before they can be employed; however, they are allowed to work in one of the workshops whilst studying to obtain the qualifications. Some of the men were unwilling to miss work to attend education and they are being accommodated with outreach [...]
Preparation for release: At the beginning of the reporting year, men with sentences eligible for the SDS40 scheme, which allows them to be released when they have served 40% of their sentence, were being assessed. Five men were released on 10 September and a further eight on the 22 October. As the year has progressed, other schemes have been introduced, which allow men to move to category D prisons early and be released [...]
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Practical info
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4.1 Reception and Induction The transient population at Buckley Hall has led to problems in reception. Transfers in and out of Buckley Hall have increased to the point where staff are so busy processing them, property is being left for far too long before it goes up to the wings. This is exacerbated by continuous staff shortages. A Board member spoke to two new arrivals on the induction wing, who had been waiting for two weeks for their belongings to come up to the wing. Too often, the transport is arriving late in the day and men are being processed after lock-up. IMB members struggle to speak to new arrivals on arrival in reception, because of this situation, but will see them on the induction wing and check their wellbeing there. Men are seen in reception by a member of the healthcare department and someone from the chaplaincy team before being moved to the induction wing. Again, this can be hampered by a late arrival. Records of first night checks are recorded in the wing office for the first 72 hours. 4.2 Suicide and self-harm, deaths in custody Sadly, there have been three deaths in custody at Buckley Hall since the beginning of the year (2025), two of whom had been resident on the same wing for a long time. This has had a profound effect on men on the wing and the staff. Full support is being offered. The third incident occurred on a separate unit. There were two serious incidents of self-harm, both involving the same man. He was relocated to the constant watch cell [...]
5.1 Accommodation, clothing and food The accommodation and facilities at Buckley Hall are tired. Repairs carried out are not always of a high enough standard and quickly fail. The showers are regularly out of use, with water either too hot to stand under or running cold. The boilers have also failed throughout the year. The television signal is inconsistent across the prison and has been waiting for over a year to be updated. The Governor has expressed his frustration with the situation, which he has been unable to resolve. The laundry equipment has been constantly breaking down throughout the year. The Board have been told by men on the wing that they have had to wash underwear and socks in mop buckets. When the dryers failed on one of the wings, some of the men said they were given wet washing to dry in their cells as best they could, as there was insufficient space to hang them up in the laundry room and they were not supposed to use the railings. The Board has witnessed the frustration on the wings when laundry is not being facilitated and, on one occasion, the laundry orderly (a trusted prisoner who takes on work to provide services that contribute to the running of the prison) reported feeling threatened and an officer on the wing had something thrown at him. Several of the in-cell toilets on D wing would not flush for several months, waiting for spare parts for the flushing mechanism to be sourced. This meant that men had to carry buckets of water upstairs to flush [...]
The education department provide classes to support the men to gain basic Maths and English skills. Men are expected to gain Level 1 in both subjects before they can be employed; however, they are allowed to work in one of the workshops whilst studying to obtain the qualifications. Some of the men were unwilling to miss work to attend education and they are being accommodated with outreach workers who go to the workshop to help them with Maths and English. This requires them to sign a compact (a sort of contract) to confirm that they will engage with the outreach worker. The education department also provides courses on life skills, computer skills, art and recycling. The art class is always busy and the men produce some amazing work. They are able to create pieces to share with family and the room is always decorated with examples of their work. It is a credit to the staff that they are able to so engage the men and still complete the curriculum. The recycling workshop takes items that have been donated and decorates them to produce saleable items. In May, IMB members observed a beautifully recovered love seat, a decorated guitar wall-hanging and a small cabinet on display. Men are engaged in building and decorating footstools. These are then sold to staff or passed to the charity that supports the class to sell. In April, the prison population was 461. The prison has 419 activity places. These are broken down as follows: 50 am/pm full-time education equivalent spaces; 76 [...]
At the beginning of the reporting year, men with sentences eligible for the SDS40 scheme, which allows them to be released when they have served 40% of their sentence, were being assessed. Five men were released on 10 September and a further eight on the 22 October. As the year has progressed, other schemes have been introduced, which allow men to move to category D prisons early and be released on home detention curfew (HDC). This has involved a huge amount of work for the offender management unit (OMU) and caused some anxiety amongst the men who were waiting for decisions. 18 The Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) was withdrawn at the end of 2024 and has been replaced with Building Choices. This was rolled out at Buckley Hall in January 2025 and the first group of eight men completed it by the end of March 2025. Building Choices allows HMP Buckley Hall to more flexibly cater for demand and ensure accredited programmes are accessible to a larger proportion of the population. The programme can be delivered to prisoners who would benefit from either a moderate- or high- intensity pathway and can also be delivered to those with learning difficulties and challenges. Optimum delivery for Building Choices ranges from 18 to 64, depending on what delivery model a prison opts to use. Capacity of places available vary each year, to respond to the priority need within the population. HMPPS programmes prioritise those closest to a release opportunity and of the higher risk or post tariff [...]
