HMP Elmley

Reports

• HMIP16 Feb 2026

  1.1 HMP Elmley is one of three prisons on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. It is a reception prison which serves the local courts and, at the time of this visit, held just over 1,000 adult male prisoners. What we found at our last inspection 1.2 At our previous inspections of HMP Elmley in 2022 and 2025, we made the following judgements about outcomes for prisoners. Figure 1: HMP Elmley healthy prison outcomes in 2022 and 2025 Note: rehabilitation and release planning became ‘preparation for release’ in October 2023. 1.3 In 2025 there had been some improvement in our test of preparation for release, but outcomes in safety, respect and

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• HMIP10 Mar 2025

  National prison population pressures and the ingress of large quantities of drugs carried on drones were affecting outcomes in many areas for prisoners at this busy, Isle of Sheppey, reception prison. Over the last year, the deputy governor had led Elmley after the departure of the previous governor to Wandsworth. She and her team had done well to maintain stability during a time of uncertainty. This was reflected in scores of not sufficiently good in our ‘safety’, ‘respect’ and ‘purposeful activity’ tests which were the same as our last inspection, while ‘preparation for release’ was rated as reasonably good, an improvement on last time. Despite the widespread availability of drugs, in most months, the prison was no longer carrying out suspicion drug testing in response to intelligence. Many of the window guards had been breached, meaning that drones could easily drop off packages to individual cells. While the security team was working closely with the next-door prison and the local police, significant technical and financial support will be needed from the prison service if this threat is to be reduced. Health care support was good for those who had drug problems, and the ISFL was beginning to operate effectively, but without a reduction in the supply of drugs, the effectiveness of these interventions was limited. With 65% of men on remand or awaiting sentence, 350 new arrivals a month and a lower category C resettlement population, the prison was more unstable than at our last inspection. The pressure on creating spaces was so great that, absurdly, some men who only had a few nights to serve were being shipped out to Rochester. Prisoners were often travelling further to get to the jail and many were arriving late at night. This meant they did not always get a proper induction or medical screening. Holding cells were bleak and lacked any useful information about the prison and the caged room in which prisoners convicted of sexual offences were held for their first hours in the jail was completely unacceptable. The prison was under pressure to keep every cell occupied meaning that graffiti was not removed or checks done to make sure prisoners had the basics such as a kettle, blankets and clean clothes. When I walked round the induction wing, I only came across one cell in which there was a pillow.

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• HMIP13 Feb 2023

  1.1 HMP Elmley opened in 1992 and is the largest of the three prisons on the Isle of Sheppey. Since the 2019 inspection, it has changed its role; while its primary function is to receive remand prisoners from the courts, its secondary purpose is now as a training establishment for a large population of sentenced category C prisoners (almost 500 currently). 1.2 At our previous inspections of HMP Elmley in 2019 and 2022, we made the following judgements about outcomes for prisoners. Figure 1: HMP Elmley healthy prison outcomes in 2019 and 2022 Good Reasonably good Not sufficiently good Poor

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• HMIP7 Mar 2022

  HMP Elmley is a Category B reception and category C training prison located on the Isle of Sheppey. The category C prisoners, which made up 45% of the population, were housed on a separate wing. The relationships between staff and prisoners were better than we usually see in this sort of prison and during the inspection we were impressed by the way most officers interacted with the men. In spite of ongoing COVID-19 cases in prisoners arriving at the jail, the prison had worked hard to keep the regime going and those in work were out of their cells for more than seven hours a day. Even unemployed prisoners could expect to be unlocked for at least five hours. It was therefore disappointing that the provision of education was so poor, with Ofsted inspectors awarding their lowest grade in two areas and their second lowest in two more, with the quality of teaching and the lack of a proper needs assessment being particularly disappointing. The governor, who was well-liked by both staff and prisoners, had only been in post since August 2021, but she had made some progress in building a more rehabilitative culture as the risk from COVID-19 began to recede. Levels of violence were slightly below the average for similar prisons, although prisoners’ perception of their own safety had not improved since our last inspection. In spite of this, the use of force had gone up significantly and the leaders had not done enough to understand the reasons for this rise. The processes for assessing, addressing and monitoring the behaviour of the more serious perpetrators of violence was not yet effective enough. We were concerned that at Elmley, a much larger number of incidents than we usually see were routinely being classed as “miscellaneous” rather than being put in a more suitable category. We also found that the use of data in measuring outcomes between different groups was not sophisticated enough to understand and act where these were disproportionate. We were disappointed to hear that the excellent early days mental health screening pilot was coming to an end. This had aimed to identify those prisoners whose mental health was at risk and was valued by both prisoners and staff. We were assured that the new service model would incorporate the same level of service and support. In health care more generally, there were not enough staff members to be able to provide a stable, high-quality service, leading to delays and a lack of consistency. The prison received more complaints than any other local prison, to which its responses were often neither timely nor helpful. This is partly because the system for making applications was not working, leading to greater prisoner frustration. We were very pleased to see that the prison was offering visits every day of the week. This was much better than we often see in other jails, where COVID-19 restrictions or staffing shortages tend to result in provision being curtailed. Staffing levels at the prison have deteriorated in recent months, but they are not yet at a critical level. The way staff are deployed is not always as creative as it could be. Consequently, key work has largely been lost and prisoner offender managers (POM) in the offender management unit are often cross deployed, directly affecting prisoner progression. There is much to build on at Elmley with many good staff members and a

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