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UK Local prison operated by HM Prison & Probation Service. Listed in the GOV.UK Find a prison directory.
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Figures from official sources · verified 7 Jul 2026 · methodology
Operator
HM Prison & Probation ServicePopulation held
male
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Death-row facility
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This Serco-run category B prison in Staffordshire had a population of 1,139 long-term populations and a therapeutic community holding 16% of the men. test, in which we awarded our lowest score of poor. This was very disappointing to fulfil its role as a training prison. While most of the long-term population was Levels of violence were lower than in comparable prisons, but there had been a recent increase in assaults by prisoners on their peers. — UK IMB Annual Report (2024) — Safety: 4.1 Reception and induction • The beginning of the reporting period continued the population pressures, with around 500 prisoners arriving and leaving during the month of November 2024. • The digitalisation of recording property arriving at HMP Dovegate has helped to reduce the number of complaints and resolve issues quickly. • A significant number of prisoners continue to arrive at HMP Dovegate [...] Respect: 5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food • Laundry and servery areas are fully utilised and keeping them clean and well maintained is challenging. When standards drop, the IMB has observed there is a concentrated effort from the management team to bring them back up to standard. • There have been no major changes to the accommodation: general repairs have taken place. However, the major refurbishment of [...] Purposeful activity: • Education attendance and performance continues to improve under the vision and leadership of the head of education and skills. Education averaged 85% attendance through the reporting year and peaked at 90% in April and May 2025. • In February 2025 HMP Dovegate became the highest performing privately run prison for education, and has been every month since. • Academic achievements: o two [...] Preparation for release: • Changes in government policies to reduce the population pressures have put additional workload on this area. • Staff holidays around Christmas created a backlog in processing prisoners’ family phone numbers; the frustrations of new prisoners led to some incidents on the induction wing. Although additional staff were deployed to process the phone numbers, the lack of understanding of the process [...]
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reluctant to challenge low-level behaviour such as vaping or improper dress
we would have expected, particularly in our purposeful activity healthy prison because education provision was also run by Serco, so there were none of the in work or education, many jobs were on the wings where prisoners were able to cope in the future. This included some impressive work with prisoners education here even worse than elsewhere in the prison. Staff worked hard to support prisoners to maintain family links; this included the work we have seen in recent years in the male estate and a therapeutic dog preparation for release healthy prison tests. The jail is performing better than year, the prison needs to completely reorientate towards education, training, and work, making sure that prisoners have a greater sense of purpose and are better prepared to get work on release.
Levels of violence were lower than in comparable prisons, but there had been a recent increase in assaults by prisoners on their peers. Staff were often reduction in the high demand for drugs and its consequent violence. If the
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
What the score is responding to:
This facility scores 23. The national average across 584 scored United Kingdom facilities is 4 — 19 points above national average.
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
4.1 Reception and induction • The beginning of the reporting period continued the population pressures, with around 500 prisoners arriving and leaving during the month of November 2024. • The digitalisation of recording property arriving at HMP Dovegate has helped to reduce the number of complaints and resolve issues quickly. • A significant number of prisoners continue to arrive at HMP Dovegate late into the evening, with reception staff not leaving the establishment until around 12 midnight after processing them, which means prisoners sometimes don’t arrive on the wings until late in the evening. • Healthcare staff process new arrivals during the evening and attend any incidents and other duties around the prison when required. 4.2 Suicide and self-harm, deaths in custody • There were five deaths in custody, only one of which was expected as the prisoner was on palliative care. One was apparently self-inflicted, two were apparently health related and one was apparently a potential accidental overdose. • There have been 804 assessment, care in custody and teamwork plans (ACCTs, used to support prisoners who are at risk of self-harm and suicide) opened during the reporting period, up from 694 in the last reporting year; this relates to 505 individuals. • There were 1018 instances of self-harm by 505 individuals, up from the previous year’s figures of 814 acts of self-harm, relating to 197 individuals. In the Board’s opinion, these increases are largely due to over [...]
5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food • Laundry and servery areas are fully utilised and keeping them clean and well maintained is challenging. When standards drop, the IMB has observed there is a concentrated effort from the management team to bring them back up to standard. • There have been no major changes to the accommodation: general repairs have taken place. However, the major refurbishment of the floors and showers is scheduled to occur in winter 2025, prior to the contract renewal. • Gutters and roofing refurbishment have taken place during the summer of 2025. • Upgrades to the fire alarms on house block 1 and 2 have also been completed during the summer of 2025. 5.2 Segregation • The staff and management of the CSU have been consistent during the reporting period. • Many of the prisoners who go to the CSU have complex issues, often related to mental health or personality disorders. Those with personality disorders are not considered to be the responsibility of the mental health team; however, even the experienced CSU staff do not have the skills to assist these prisoners to ensure better prisoner outcomes. • Waiting times to transfer mentally ill prisoners to specialised units remain lengthy, and cause frustration for the prisoner and staff. • Exit plans for those with personality disorders appears non-existent as the pressure is on the establishment to have them transferred to ensure they don’t surpass the maximum days allowed in segregation; therefore, they get [...]
• Education attendance and performance continues to improve under the vision and leadership of the head of education and skills. Education averaged 85% attendance through the reporting year and peaked at 90% in April and May 2025. • In February 2025 HMP Dovegate became the highest performing privately run prison for education, and has been every month since. • Academic achievements: o two graduations with first class honours o 23 prisoners completing Open University Degrees o 40 learners studying level three (which equates to A level standard) or above courses with the Prisoners Education Trust o 14 under 25s enrolled on the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme o 458 functional skills certificates achieved • Learning and Literacy: o 5,260 AQA awards achieved. These can be achieved in six hours, which helps when there are so many transfers and movements. o 30 learners engaged with the Shannon Trust o 1,500 books were donated through the Children’s Book Project. • Seven resident prisoner tutors gained Level 5 Diplomas in Teaching and Learning. • In July 2025, a resource room opened in the education suite for neurodiverse and learning disability D students. • Two platinum awards were received by prisoners at the Koestler Awards, an annual competition that celebrates the creative talents of individuals in the criminal justice system. • The welding workshop continues to be a success, with a company making items for children’s playgrounds asking for their own designated workshop after [...]
• Changes in government policies to reduce the population pressures have put additional workload on this area. • Staff holidays around Christmas created a backlog in processing prisoners’ family phone numbers; the frustrations of new prisoners led to some incidents on the induction wing. Although additional staff were deployed to process the phone numbers, the lack of understanding of the process with families and prisoners appears to make the process more difficult. • Security has been tightened up in visits after a few finds of illicit items. • This reporting year the main focus for the OMU has been the recalculation of sentences for all prisoners based on changes in policy by government/Ministry of Justice. • A small number of prisoners have met the criteria and been released early from HMP Dovegate. • On a few of occasions there have been prisoners who have been released a day or two later than they should, due to errors in the calculations. • There is a significant backlog in the formalising the Oasys sentence plans (offender assessment system, used to assess the risks and needs of prisoners), which is currently being focused on. • There is concern that a significant percentage of those released nationally have since returned to prison, some to Dovegate as, according to conversations with prison management, the prisoners were not ready for release and did not have support in place in society to ensure they did not breach release orders. • The set time frame for recalls [...]
This Serco-run category B prison in Staffordshire had a population of 1,139 when we inspected. The jail had a mix of functions with substantial remand and long-term populations and a therapeutic community holding 16% of the men. The director who took over in January 2023 was the seventh in the last 10 years. This lack of stability meant that the jail had not progressed as much as we would have expected, particularly in our purposeful activity healthy prison test, in which we awarded our lowest score of poor. This was very disappointing because education provision was also run by Serco, so there were none of the contracting issues we see with other prisons; it meant that Dovegate was failing to fulfil its role as a training prison. While most of the long-term population was in work or education, many jobs were on the wings where prisoners were underemployed and spent much of their time with not enough to do. The prison had, however, introduced several enrichment activities such as a film club or gardening, much of which was prisoner led. Levels of violence were lower than in comparable prisons, but there had been a recent increase in assaults by prisoners on their peers. Staff were often reluctant to challenge low-level behaviour such as vaping or improper dress which meant that the rules were not clear. The therapeutic community continued to be a thriving and innovative provision. It supported prisoners with complex needs and behaviour to help them to make sense of their past and learn to regulate their behaviour, so they were better able to cope in the future. This included some impressive work with prisoners who had learning difficulties. Ofsted inspectors, however, found the provision of education here even worse than elsewhere in the prison. Ongoing difficulties with recruiting health care staff meant that provision was fragile. Of particular concern was the care for prisoners who arrived late in the evening who did not always get adequate health screening, which meant that they sometimes did not get essential medication. Staff worked hard to support prisoners to maintain family links; this included the innovative use of technology to allow some to send and receive text messages. There was some creative support to reduce prisoners’ risk, complemented by a good range of offending behaviour programmes. These included the best key work we have seen in recent years in the male estate and a therapeutic dog training programme. Shortages of staff however, meant that prison offender managers were often stretched, regular meetings with prisoners did not take place and it was disappointing that nearly a third of prisoners left the jail homeless. The director’s focus on improving the welfare of staff had paid off. Officers spoke positively about the effect that his arrival had had on the jail, with a renewed sense of purpose and a feeling that the prison was making progress. On the wings, inspectors were impressed by the good relationships they saw between prisoners and staff. Despite sometimes low staffing levels, officers knew their prisoners well. There is much for the director and his staff to be proud of at Dovegate, and this was reflected in our scores of ‘reasonably good’ in our safety, respect, and preparation for release healthy prison tests. The jail is performing better than most prisons with big remand populations and longer-term prisoners. In the next year, the prison needs to completely reorientate towards education, training, and work, making sure that prisoners have a greater sense of purpose and are better prepared to get work on release. A more productive jail will also lead to a reduction in the high demand for drugs and its consequent violence. If the prison has a sustained period of more stable leadership, I am confident that progress will be made. Charlie Taylor HM Chief Inspector of Prisons November 2023
Full inspection of HMP Dovegate (2019-09-30)
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World Prisons. (2026). HMP Dovegate. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-dovegate
"HMP Dovegate." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-dovegate.
@misc{worldprisons-hmp-dovegate,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {HMP Dovegate},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-dovegate},
urldate = {2026-07-21}
}