HMP Northumberland

Reports

• HMIP2 Dec 2025

  With scores of reasonably good across all four of our healthy prison assessments, this was a positive inspection of a well-run category C training and resettlement prison. Northumberland held a population of 1,223 men that included more than 400 prisoners convicted of a sexual offence. The discovery of RAAC in the accommodation and in one of the education blocks had meant parts of the jail had been closed, with a large building project underway. This was also leading to refurbishment of five wings, which will ultimately improve living standards in a large proportion of the jail. Other parts of the prison – particularly those holding vulnerable prisoners – were showing their age, but leaders had made sure that wings were kept clean and men appreciated being housed predominantly in single cells. The director and education leaders’ focus on purposeful activity had led to some impressive provision and Ofsted noted some particularly good teaching in education and some of the workshops. Attendance was much better than most prisons, as was the amount of time spent out of cell for those who were in employment. It was good to see that the prison had also introduced free flow of men to activities, which was efficiently supervised by staff. Very few prisoners were released on temporary licence (ROTL) for work outside the prison and the jail should seek to expand this offer in the future. Men who had not yet been allocated to education or work had only 2.5 hours a day unlocked, and waits were too long. At the weekends prisoners were out of their cells for six hours, which was better than we usually see. Generally good staff-prisoner relations made the atmosphere across the jail positive; this was also reflected in the amount of staff assaults, which was among the lowest in the country. Leaders had improved recruitment and a prison-led training package that continued throughout officers’ first year had led to good levels of staff retention. Disappointingly, there were not enough meaningful incentives to help prisoners behave well and many complained that, because there were not enough spaces on accredited programmes, they felt progression was limited. This may have also been the cause of the high level of drug taking at the jail, and although the number of positives in random testing was lower than most category C prisons, it was still much too high. Drugs were often the cause of violence between prisoners, which had increased significantly since our last inspection. Although care for the most vulnerable was good, with creative ideas to help them to cope, support for the less severely needy prisoners was patchy. The prison was providing well for the many elderly men in the jail, but there was insufficient support for foreign national prisoners. There had been a considerable improvement in the offender management unit (OMU) since our 2022 visit, with better organised support and good links with community services. Public protection monitoring of prisoners remained a concern, particularly since we had raised this at our last two inspections. The prison had not done enough to make sure that prisoners were employed on release and levels were some of the lowest among similar jails. There is a national challenge for the prison service to engage with employers across the country to find work for men with convictions for sexual offences. This was a positive inspection of a decent, productive jail and, if the effective and capable governor and her deputy remain in post, I am confident that there can be further improvements in all four of our healthy prison assessments at a future inspection. Charlie Taylor HM Chief Inspector of Prisons October 2025

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• NPM-uk-imb-respect1 Jan 2024

  5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food The prison recognised that a significant amount of prisoner accommodation and house block communal areas had become tired and were falling short of the standards expected. It embarked on a plan to improve the house block environment in 2024. The aim was to improve all house blocks. Prisoner work parties have been formed, trained, and directed to undertake the majority of the work; this will expand beyond localised parties to more skilled mobile parties. Cells have been repainted in a number of house blocks and the communal areas have been redecorated and refurbished. Shower upgrades are being carried out on a rolling basis. Outdoor fitness equipment has been installed in some of the exercise yards. One of the house blocks has been redesignated for older prisoners with higher levels of need. On house block 16, which is for prisoners nearing the end of their sentence, prisoners are allowed to create their own menus, order supplies from the kitchen, and cook their own food; the kitchen on the house block had been upgraded to facilitate this. Overall, the Board has observed a real prisoner buy-in to the wing where they are proud to be on house block 16. The construction of Alnwick House, a 60-bed unit designated for prisoners convicted of sexual offences (PCSOs) was completed on 12 April 2024 and the unit opened in early May. The unit houses enhanced only prisoners. The enhanced regime allows prisoners greater levels of freedom, due to good [...]

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• NPM-uk-imb-safety1 Jan 2024

  4.1 Reception and induction The prison now has a new and more welcoming reception area, which was developed in response to the population changes and because the previous reception area was affected by RAAC. The prison has also made other improvements to the induction of new prisoners. The induction unit has been relocated from house block 9 to house block 5, allowing more prisoner spaces and in response to the reception relocation. The facilities on house block 5 are undergoing a refresh to improve the experience and space. Insiders (existing serving prisoners who are trusted to guide and support new inmates) have been relocated to improve the peer service. A welcome centre is now open in the education annex; this will provide a broader programme of settlement and assessment, setting the tone for off-wing attendance at activities. 4.2 Suicide and self-harm, deaths in custody The Director informed the Board that the prison is aware of many of the reasons for why someone would self-harm; these included stress/frustration, medication and debt. However, towards the end of the year, it seems there was clear evidence of a linkage between self-harm incidents and prisoners who have been placed on basic incentives level after being found under the influence of illicit substances. The prison’s drug strategy lead is coordinating work on this. There is also work being carried out to better improve staff-prisoner relationships. There was a notable spike in the number of incidents of [...]

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• NPM-uk-imb-purposeful-activity1 Jan 2024

  In the early part of the year, we were pleased to note an improvement in the use of technology on classrooms and hope this will continue to be developed. We continue to observe excellent engagement in the hospitality class and were most impressed with the appropriateness of dress for the course. However, other classes do not appear as robust and useful in preparing men for the world of work on release. Further improvements have been noted on the delivery of the TESOL (English language) class. We have noted that our concerns regarding mixing TESOL students with students with study basic skills have been addressed, and we are also pleased to see the use of a variety of translation devices in class. It was very pleasing to see all the students had either a bilingual dictionary or access to a form of translation. A range of first languages are spoken in the TESOL class, including Romanian, Kurdish and Vietnamese. We spoke with a Romanian student who had a good level of English and was able to identify speaking as the skill he found most difficult. He also identified why and said speaking opportunities in the class were not frequent. Students may be better prepared for release if greater focus was put on the more challenging skills of speaking and listening. The Board’s discussions with the career mentors, who are ‘red bands’ (trusted prisoners who provide peer support) established the main issue was that not enough men who struggle with reading and writing engaged with improving [...]

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• NPM-uk-imb-preparation-for-release1 Jan 2024

  The prison has taken steps to improve release planning and preparation activities, to respond to the early release scheme implemented by the government in September and October 2024, including: • Bespoke pre-release meetings that used a multi-disciplinary approach to risk management and pre-release planning for outside of the prison. • Prison offender managers met with all prisoners being released within the week to ensure they were aware of their license conditions and reporting instructions. • There was engagement with the local community safety teams via contact with the local criminal justice board. A senior leader also engaged with the local resilience forum. • The departure lounge had a presence from the offender management unit for any signposting activities. This included providing some access to practical arrangements, such as ability to charge any mobile phones and signposting to transport on release. At the end of last year, there were three prisoners on release on temporary licence (ROTL), which allows prisoners to be temporarily released into the community for specific purpose. All three had successful work placements. One of the prisoners was the first from the vulnerable prisoners estate to be granted ROTL. He has worked in the prison’s bike repair shop and has become a skilled bike repairer.

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• HMIP5 Sept 2022

  An amalgamation of the former Acklington and Castington prisons, HMP Northumberland is a large category C training and resettlement prison. Two years after the merger, in 2013, the prison’s operation was contracted out to the private company, Sodexo. An expansive site comprising a range of different accommodation types, the prison holds in excess of 1300 adult men, a significant proportion of whom have been convicted of sexual offences. This was our first inspection of Northumberland since 2017. We found outcomes for prisoners in our healthy prison tests of safety and respect to be reasonably good, a recognition in part that the prison is now safer than it was five years ago. At this visit, we were more concerned about the prison’s ability to deliver its core purpose of providing men with training and resettlement services. Outcomes in purposeful activity were not sufficiently good, and in the provision of rehabilitation and resettlement they had deteriorated and were now assessed as poor. Leaders had prioritised improvements in staff culture, and progress in this was reflected in our survey; most prisoners told us that they felt respected. However, improved supervision of prisoners and greater consistency in the approach staff adopted in their dealings with prisoners were also required to improve relationships between staff and prisoners. Furthermore, and in line with experience at many other establishments, staff shortages were posing significant problems for the prison, especially in the delivery of rehabilitation and release planning services. Formal consultation arrangements and systems for redress, such as the application and complaint procedures, were better managed than we often see. The promotion of equality had received little prioritisation, however, and consultation with prisoners from minority groups was limited, as was the use of data, meaning leaders were not well sighted on the support needs of these individuals. The size and extent of the prison meant it was a challenge to supervise, yet the environment was well maintained, and fewer surveyed prisoners told us they felt unsafe compared to our last inspection. Violence had reduced significantly and most measures we consider when judging safety, such as use of force and segregation had also improved. An important exception was safeguarding. Over the past five years, six prisoners had taken their own lives, in itself a concerning figure and higher than at similar prisons. Yet despite this, the prisons approach to suicide and self-harm prevention was not robust. The complexity of the situation, however, is reflected in that over the same time period, incidents of self-harm had actually halved. The quality of the daily regime did not meet the standards expected of a training prison. We found a quarter of prisoners locked up during the core working day with the shortfall of available activity places resulting in 19% of men being unemployed. Time out of cell varied greatly and could be as low as two hours a day for some. At weekends it was worse. Attendance at education and vocational training classes was also low and punctuality was poor. Added to this, classes were often cancelled. Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of provision as ‘requires improvement’, their second lowest assessment. The prison had similarly lost its way with respect to rehabilitation, which had stalled following the pandemic. Leaders knew what needed to be done, although progress was slow, and their plans might have been be better informed by the more effective use of data. Staff shortages were impacting delivery and many prisoners expressed frustration at, or a lack of confidence in, their ability to achieve their sentence plan targets. Public protection arrangements or access to offending behaviour intervention were similarly inadequate, although release planning for those at the end of sentence was better.

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• HMIP15 Sept 2020

  Scrutiny inspection of HMP Northumberland (2020-09-15)

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