HMP Maidstone

Reports

• HMIP1 Dec 2025

  Built in the 19th century, Maidstone is one of three jails in the country that specialises in housing foreign national prisoners. Many of the men held were nearing the end of their sentence, and likely to be removed from the UK. Many had arrived at the prison anxious about the future, facing language barriers and experiencing separation from family. This inspection found the prison was well lead overall, with steady improvements evident since our previous inspection in 2022. The jail was reasonably safe and respectful, but there remained weaknesses in preparation for release and the delivery of a meaningful regime. The rate of new arrivals and turnover of population at the prison had increased significantly, and although prisoners generally reported positive experiences, reception and early days arrangements could be better. Night staff lacked confidence in their understanding of emergency procedures, and interpretation services, crucial to a prison population who speak limited English, were not used consistently. Living conditions were a continuing concern, with Maidstone’s aging infrastructure evident across several residential units. While leaders had done what they could to improve communal areas and, for example, refurbish some showers and cells, they needed to do more to address broken windows, damaged flooring and overcrowded cells holding two prisoners in spaces designed for one. Staff-prisoner relationships were a strength. Most officers engaged well with prisoners and key work had improved. The general atmosphere on the wings was settled and encouraging. However, expectations of behaviour were not always enforced consistently, and the under-use of translation services continued to limit the ability of non-English-speaking prisoners to engage fully with the regime. Incidents of violence had increased but remained low overall. Those at risk of self-harm told us they felt well cared for. A significant operational challenge, however, was the availability of illicit drugs and the weakness of security infrastructure to challenge this.

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• HMIP20 Nov 2023

  1.1 Maidstone is a category C training prison that held nearly 600 foreign national prisoners at the time of our visit. The prison is more than 200 years old and some of the accommodation has changed little in that time. 1.2 This visit followed up on the concerns we raised at our last inspection of HMP Maidstone in 2022. What we found at our last inspection 1.3 At our previous inspections of HMP Maidstone in 2018 and 2022, we made the following judgements about outcomes for prisoners. Figure 1: HMP Maidstone healthy prison outcomes in 2018 and 2022 Note: rehabilitation and release planning became ‘preparation for release’ in October 2023. 1.4 At the full inspection in September 2022, despite poor living conditions on some wings, the prison was providing reasonably good outcomes in the test of respect. Staff-prisoner relationships were largely positive, work to improve fair treatment and inclusion was developing well, and chaplaincy and health care provision were reasonably good. 1.5 Outcomes were worse in our other three tests, especially purposeful activity, which was poor for the second consecutive inspection. There were insufficient activity spaces, the allocations process was not working properly, quality assurance was poor and staff vacancies undermined delivery. There were also weaknesses in safety, which included poor oversight of the use of force and a lack of focus on the vulnerabilities that affected foreign national prisoners with uncertain immigration status. The quality of offender management work was inconsistent and prisoners - over a third of whom were released to the UK - could not progress well through their sentence. Report of an independent review of progress at HMP Maidstone 4.12.23 What we found during this review visit 1.6 At this independent review, we assessed progress against nine key concerns, including three themes identified by Ofsted. There was reasonable progress in six areas, including four previous priority concerns. The other three concerns, including two of the three Ofsted themes relating to purposeful activity, had seen insufficient progress. Even though 13 months had elapsed since the inspection, we found no areas of good progress. 1.7 The prison had not had consistent leadership during this time with a third governor in 18 months recently appointed. The governor told us that he was still assessing what needed to be done at Maidstone and was, with some early success, prioritising the creation of systems to identify and remedy problems. For example, the previously chaotic system for managing prisoner applications had recently improved, and there was also much better management of the complaints process and external hospital appointments. 1.8 A new foreign national prisoner training package was being rolled out to staff which was accompanied by a useful information guide. The use of professional interpreting had also improved sharply, although from a low base, and prisoners had more opportunities to speak to Home Office staff about their cases. 1.9 However, the goal of creating a prison culture focused on the specific needs of its foreign national population remained in its early stages. This challenge was highlighted by ongoing concerns in safety. Tragically, there had been two self-inflicted deaths in the previous five months, and the prison’s early learning review had highlighted shortcomings in support for prisoners anxious about their immigration cases. 1.10 Living conditions were improving; shower areas were being refurbished, basic items such as toilet covers were now provided for all prisoners, and we found no broken furniture in any of the cells that we checked. However, conditions remained too variable and some cells were in a very poor state. 1.11 Ofsted found that there were now sufficient education staff to deliver a suitable curriculum and qualification rates were generally good.

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• HMIP3 Oct 2022

  Maidstone is a category C training prison that held 579 foreign national offenders at the time of our inspection, many of whom were likely to be deported at the end of their sentences. The prison is more than 200 years old and some of the original, dark, cavernous, and sometimes damp cells remained, with poor ventilation and little natural light. These spartan conditions were, in part, mitigated by very high standards of cleanliness and the fact that most prisoners were in single cells. There was also a programme to improve the showers which meant they were mostly better than we saw in our last visit. The governor, well-liked by both prisoners and staff, had arrived just six months before the inspection and had begun to make improvements, setting clear, suitable and well-communicated priorities. This included an improvement in the regime, which meant that since September, prisoners in work or education were out of their cells for seven hours and 45 minutes a day, while those who were unemployed had four hours. This was much better than we had seen in most of our recent category C inspections. The provision of suitable work or education was rated inadequate by Ofsted and the provider had failed to provide a curriculum that fitted with labour shortages in the community or took into account the restrictions on working for prisoners whose immigration status was in doubt. This situation had not improved since our last inspection in 2018 and reflected the poor service that was being provided by the education contractor. For example, there was no English teacher – a huge loss given the nature of the population – and there was no strategy in place to teach prisoners to read. In our survey, the number of prisoners who told us that staff treated them with

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