United Kingdom · LTHSE · Kent
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UK Category A prison operated by HM Prison & Probation Service. Listed in the GOV.UK Find a prison directory.
Capacity
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Current population
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Occupancy
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Year opened
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Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 7 Jul 2026 · methodology
Operator
HM Prison & Probation ServicePopulation held
male
Opened
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Region
LTHSE
Security level
Maximum
Death-row facility
No
indeterminate sentences, levels of violence were some of the highest of any prison in England and Wales and assaults on staff, many of which were serious, Much of the violence had been driven by the large amounts of drugs being brought into the prison by drones. Drug debts and gang rivalry were often the Long-term difficulties with staffing meant that only three-quarters of officers Morale amongst officers during our inspection was very poor; many looked around them. Amongst staff and prisoners, the constant fear of violence had a corrosive effect on many aspects of prison life, including staff-prisoner they currently felt unsafe. Systems for managing behaviour were almost non- To attempt to regain control, senior leaders from the long-term, high-security estate and the governor had instigated a new regime that was resulting in just retired. — UK IMB Annual Report (2024) — Safety: 4.1 Reception and induction Reception is the location where discharged and incoming prisoners are processed. Since it is the location of the prison’s body scanner, it is also used to examine prisoners being transferred between wings when they are suspected of carrying concealed items. Prisoners are typically transfers between prisons or are attending/returning from hospital. In general, the [...] Respect: 5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Prisoners continue to benefit from single-occupancy cells and the works team is to be commended for sharply reducing the number of out-of-action cells this year, a challenge not helped by Swaleside having the second-highest arson incidents in the country. In the winter, heating in the wings is adequate, but the high temperatures experienced in summer again led to [...] Purposeful activity: Milton Keynes College (MK), as course provider, continues to provide a first-class programme of both accredited and non-accredited courses, in the Board’s view. There is a financial incentive to attend educational courses, at both basic and advanced levels. To be able to work within the prison, all residents should have Level 1 Maths and English before being considered for employment, but there [...] Preparation for release: Again, the offender management progression work continues to be greatly affected by staff shortages in this reporting year. Although there are the equivalent of 14.6 prisoner offender managers (POMs), which is 3.1 higher than last year’s figure of 11.5, the budget allocated allows for 20.5. This shortage has led to instances of prisoners’ frustration, as they are unable to discuss any issues they [...]
This review visit followed up on the concerns we raised at our last This was our seventh visit since 2016. At our most recent full What we found during this review visit At this review visit, progress made against our concerns varied we reviewed at this visit. This was our sixth visit to Swaleside since 2016.
year before the current governor took up her post in July 2025.
relationships. Many prisoners chose not to go to the gym or attend medical estate and the governor had instigated a new regime that was resulting in just Recent cuts to education provision had led to the discontinuation of some were far too slow and some workshops did not have enough workers because very risky men held at Swaleside. Although not designated as a resettlement Note: rehabilitation and release planning became ‘preparation for release’ in October 2023. few opportunities for work and education and around two fifths of the population were locked up during the working day.
indeterminate sentences, levels of violence were some of the highest of any prison in England and Wales and assaults on staff, many of which were serious, Much of the violence had been driven by the large amounts of drugs being brought into the prison by drones. Drug debts and gang rivalry were often the cause of assaults, and many prisoners were routinely making and carrying around them. Amongst staff and prisoners, the constant fear of violence had a prison was still not safe enough, the rate of violence remained high and there had been seven self-inflicted deaths in two years. There were too The use of drones to deliver drugs and other illicit items to prisoners showed an increase in drug use by prisoners.
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
What the score is responding to:
This facility scores 36. The national average across 584 scored United Kingdom facilities is 4 — 32 points above national average.
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
Our inspection of Swaleside, a category B training prison on the Isle of Sheppey, revealed a prison in disarray, with the lowest scores in my five years as chief inspector. Containing 879 men, most of whom were serving long or indeterminate sentences, levels of violence were some of the highest of any prison in England and Wales and assaults on staff, many of which were serious, had more than doubled since our last inspection in 2023. Much of the violence had been driven by the large amounts of drugs being brought into the prison by drones. Drug debts and gang rivalry were often the cause of assaults, and many prisoners were routinely making and carrying weapons. Long-term difficulties with staffing meant that only three-quarters of officers were available for duty, while a lack of operational support grades meant that enhanced gate security to prevent the ingress of contraband was inconsistent. Morale amongst officers during our inspection was very poor; many looked exhausted and some appeared to have become disassociated from the chaos around them. Amongst staff and prisoners, the constant fear of violence had a corrosive effect on many aspects of prison life, including staff-prisoner relationships. Many prisoners chose not to go to the gym or attend medical appointments because they were frightened; in our survey, 43% of men said they currently felt unsafe. Systems for managing behaviour were almost non- existent, with little in the way of challenge or incentive. Inspectors observed open rule-breaking and even witnessed prisoners pushing through searching lines of officers. To attempt to regain control, senior leaders from the long-term, high-security estate and the governor had instigated a new regime that was resulting in just over an hour a day out of cell for the 44% of prisoners who were unemployed or retired. A failure by leaders to communicate adequately these changes to staff and prisoners had led to chaotic situations where no one appeared to know what was supposed to be happening. National resources were sent to the prison, including dogs to try to restore order, and during our inspection, 23 troublesome men were shipped to other jails. Recent cuts to education provision had led to the discontinuation of some vocational courses that had been popular with prisoners. Allocations to activities were far too slow and some workshops did not have enough workers because there were not enough prisoners who passed the risk threshold to use the equipment. The prison was utterly failing to fulfil its remit as a training prison. Many of the men were extremely frustrated by the lack of progress they were able to make with their long sentences. The offender management unit was understaffed and lacked the consistent and effective leadership that was required to support the men in their care. Sentence plans had often not been completed and the very limited accredited programmes offer was not available to the population of men convicted of sexual offences at all. This meant many were unable to move to category C status or demonstrate that they had reduced their risk to the public. Public protection arrangements were woeful given the very risky men held at Swaleside. Although not designated as a resettlement prison, the jail was releasing an average of 13 men a month, and although staff were doing their best to support those leaving the jail, communication with outside agencies and probation officers was not good enough. When the previous, longstanding governor left in February 2024, disastrously HMPPS failed to fill the vacancy and this most risky of prisons had been led by temporarily promoted staff. This damaging hiatus had lasted for more than a year before the current governor took up her post in July 2025. She had a good understanding of the many challenges facing the prison and staff were positive about her vision, but more operational grip was required in
1.1 First opened in the 1980s and located on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, HMP Swaleside is a category B training prison holding 939 adult male prisoners, most serving over four years and a significant proportion serving life sentences. 1.2 This review visit followed up on the concerns we raised at our last inspection of HMP Swaleside in 2023. What we found at our last inspection 1.3 This was our seventh visit since 2016. At our most recent full inspections in 2021 and 2023, we made the following judgements about outcomes for prisoners. Figure 1: HMP Swaleside healthy prison outcomes in 2021 and 2023 Note: rehabilitation and release planning became ‘preparation for release’ in October 2023. 1.4 Leaders at Swaleside had six months’ notice of our inspection in 2023 with the aim of giving them the opportunity to focus on our priority concerns. In addition to this, HMPPS had reduced the population of prisoners held at the prison. 1.5 It was therefore disappointing that outcomes in three of our healthy prison tests remained not sufficiently good at the 2023 inspection. The prison was still not safe enough, the rate of violence remained high and there had been seven self-inflicted deaths in two years. There were too few opportunities for work and education and around two fifths of the population were locked up during the working day. Outcomes in the Preparation for Release test had improved slightly but there was too little support from prison offender managers to meet the offending related needs of the largely high-risk population. Report of an independent review of progress at HMP Swaleside What we found during this review visit 1.6 At this review visit, progress made against our concerns varied considerably. We found reasonable progress in three areas of concern but insufficient progress in another three. Ofsted found reasonable progress against two of their themes but insufficient progress in the third. 1.7 The use of drones to deliver drugs and other illicit items to prisoners had become a major problem during the last year and all evidence showed an increase in drug use by prisoners. The impact of this had clearly limited the degree of progress made in almost all the concerns we reviewed at this visit. 1.8 Leaders had developed their response to the demand for drugs by re- establishing a decent range of therapeutic approaches, but waiting times for these were far too long due to the level of need among prisoners. The PIPE unit and the outreach work were good and the support provided by the drug recovery wing had improved. 1.9 The rates of self-harm and violence had increased since September 2023 and serious assaults, particularly on staff, were a continuing cause for concern. It was good that officer recruitment had been effective but half had less than a year in service and many lacked the confidence and skill to manage prisoners’ behaviour robustly while providing them with decent care. However, leaders had put in place good support for officers which, over time, may bring some much- needed improvements. 1.10 Reasonable progress had been made in recruiting staff to education, skills and work and the number of spaces available to prisoners had increased, although attendance was still not good enough. Gradual and determined progress had been made in increasing the number of probation officers in the OMU but caseloads remained high and contact levels had not yet improved. Too many prisoners found it difficult to progress as population pressures prevented them from transferring to a category C prison. No specific offending behaviour programme was being delivered to men convicted of sexual offences, so they also struggled to demonstrate progression. 1.11
Milton Keynes College (MK), as course provider, continues to provide a first-class programme of both accredited and non-accredited courses, in the Board’s view. There is a financial incentive to attend educational courses, at both basic and advanced levels. To be able to work within the prison, all residents should have Level 1 Maths and English before being considered for employment, but there are occasions when this requirement is not strictly enforced. Changes in the way that statistics are collated and reported has resulted in it being difficult to make comparisons with previous years. From April 2024 to April 2025, some 672 prisoners started courses compared with 706 the previous year. This small fall in numbers appears to be due to apathy amongst the prisoners, rather than failings by the education unit. This attitude to education is now being focused on incentivising attendance at classes. Around 10% of prisoners decided to withdraw from courses. This compares with up to a 30% withdrawal rate in recent years with previous education providers. Of these 672 starts, 562 prisoners completed their courses, with 546 achieving their goals. The pass rate of 97% is a slight increase on the previous year. MK offers both accredited and non-accredited courses, covering such subjects as catering, music, IT and art. This year, several more practical courses have been added to help prisoners improve job prospects on release. These include warehousing, peer mentoring, and [...]
4.1 Reception and induction Reception is the location where discharged and incoming prisoners are processed. Since it is the location of the prison’s body scanner, it is also used to examine prisoners being transferred between wings when they are suspected of carrying concealed items. Prisoners are typically transfers between prisons or are attending/returning from hospital. In general, the number of medical transfers significantly exceeds transfers between prisons. The recanting of the prison started in the previous reporting year. By August 2024, 286 prisoners had been at the establishment for less than six months. Of those prisoners arriving around June, 49% were deemed violent compared with an HMP Swaleside average of around 20%. From the Board’s observations, it is clear that prisons opted to transfer prisoners who posed the greatest risk of harm to others, which added to the pressure on establishing staff and prisoner relationships. Similar to other prisons, Swaleside intends to use The Big Word language interpreting service for prisoners whose primary language is not English, which should help improve understanding with foreign national prisoners. 4.2 Suicide and self-harm, deaths in custody Regrettably, self-harm is ever present. In the main, it involves a small number of prisoners and is often related to prisoners’ requests for vapes or changes in the regime. Unlike some CSRUs, Swaleside allows the use of vapes, which results in a disproportionate level of [...]
5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Prisoners continue to benefit from single-occupancy cells and the works team is to be commended for sharply reducing the number of out-of-action cells this year, a challenge not helped by Swaleside having the second-highest arson incidents in the country. In the winter, heating in the wings is adequate, but the high temperatures experienced in summer again led to widespread complaints of extreme and unbearable conditions in the cells. This situation is exacerbated by the restricted openings of the cell windows. A four-day lead time to increase/decrease the temperature does not help. Alpha wing remains closed, due to its refurbishment in line with planned improvements. Bravo and Charlie wings were amongst the most troublesome at HMP Swaleside. Bravo wing consistently had the highest finds of drugs, tobacco, weapons, mobile phones, SIM cards, and ‘hooch’ (illicitly brewed alcohol). This may be connected to over 50% of the population being aged 20-29, the highest on any wing. Charlie wing has continually been the scene of the most violent attacks and the cleanliness on Charlie wing has left a lot to be desired, with cleaners regularly losing their jobs. Both wings have been routinely understaffed or have newly, but not sufficiently, trained officers. In a few cases that the Board has observed, some of the officers under the prison officer entry level training scheme (POELTS) do not seem proficient in English, which appears to make them wary of [...]
Again, the offender management progression work continues to be greatly affected by staff shortages in this reporting year. Although there are the equivalent of 14.6 prisoner offender managers (POMs), which is 3.1 higher than last year’s figure of 11.5, the budget allocated allows for 20.5. This shortage has led to instances of prisoners’ frustration, as they are unable to discuss any issues they may have and progress with their sentence plans. Observation classification and allocation (OCA) supports transfers to other prisons, averaging 150 per annum, is markedly affected, as some prisoners are unable to be transferred. This could be due to many reasons: for example, it could be gang related or concern a prisoner’s behaviour when last in the requested establishment. Even prisoner requests on compassionate grounds for a transfer nearer to their family’s home cannot be facilitated. A further concern for staff is the number of prisoners who arrive at Swaleside with no initial offender assessment system (OASys) assessment (which evaluates a prisoner’s risks and needs). At the end of the reporting period, 26 were overdue. The prison has struggled with releasing support and the increasing numbers of home detention curfews (HDCs). The Government’s SDS40 release plan created an enormous workload, as every prisoner’s case had to be reviewed. The staff are to be commended for sacrificing their spare time to complete the task on time. Overall, staff seem to be unhappy, as they cannot [...]
First opened in the 1980s and located on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, Swaleside is a category B training prison currently able to hold 839 adult men. This constitutes a temporary reduction in population, although at the time of our inspection there were advanced preparations to re-open the closed accommodation units. The challenges faced in leading and operating Swaleside cannot be underestimated. Most prisoners present considerable risks, with well over 40% serving lengthy sentences of more than 10 years, a further 43% serving indeterminate sentences, mostly life, and one unit dedicated to the accommodation of men convicted of a sexual offence. Coupled with this, and despite the significant efforts of leaders, the prison had chronic difficulties in recruiting officers and more specialist staff. At the time of the inspection, this was reflected in very restricted daily routines and the presence of many temporary staff from other prisons required to sustain operations. This was our sixth visit to Swaleside since 2016. During that time, we have repeatedly raised significant concerns about the prison, both in terms of the poor outcomes we have observed and the challenges it faces in making any progress following our reports. Safety outcomes have remained not good enough, and on only one occasion have we seen reasonably good outcomes in any of our healthy prison tests. I therefore took the decision to announce this inspection six months in advance to give leaders the opportunity to use our inspection as a focus for improvement. Our findings suggest that they grasped that opportunity. Outcomes in all four of our healthy prison areas remain concerning, but very real efforts had been made by leaders and staff to mitigate the worst impacts of the strategic challenges faced by the prison. It was, however, still not safe enough. Adequate reception and induction arrangements were in place, but there was some evidence from our survey to suggest new prisoners were more anxious about their arrival at Swaleside than at similar prisons. These feelings persisted among many, and although recorded violence had not increased since we last visited, it was higher than at comparable prisons. Work was being done to better understand the causes of violence in the prison and oversight, interventions and use of incentives were getting better, but investigations into incidents were not robust. Use of force was managed well and while the segregation unit was usually full, stays were not excessive and the quality of care was satisfactory. Most security measures were proportionate and effective but there was evidence to indicate that illicit drugs were too easily available. The reduction of self-harm had been prioritised in the prison and although this had led to some improvements, seven prisoners had taken their own lives since we last inspected. A significant amount of work had been done to address the problem and progress had been made, but many initiatives were still too partial or applied too inconsistently. Despite staff shortages, relationships between staff and prisoners were reasonably good, if inconsistent. We saw some positive interactions and most prisoners felt respected. However, supervisory staff and middle managers needed to go much further in offering inexperienced staff robust support and guidance. Many aspects of daily living were better than we often see. There was no overcrowding, living conditions were generally good and prisoner parties were deployed effectively to maintain and improve the environment. Access to clothing and other basic items was similarly good, while consultation, applications and complaints were managed reasonably well, albeit with more improvements needed. The promotion of equality, however, was much weaker, despite pockets of good and innovative practice. Our spot checks indicated that 39% of prisoners were locked in their cells
1.1 HMP Swaleside is a category B training prison for adult men and is part of HM Prison and Probation Service’s long term and high security estate. Built mostly in the late 1980s and located on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, it can hold more than 1,000 prisoners aged 21 and over. 1.2 At our previous inspections of HMP Swaleside in 2018 and 2021 we made the following judgements about outcomes for prisoners. Figure 1: HMP Swaleside healthy prison outcomes in 2018 and 2021 Good Reasonably good Not sufficiently good Poor
HMP Swaleside is a category B training prison for adult men and is part of HM Prison and Probation Service’s (HMPPS) long term and high security estate. Built mostly in the late 1980s and located on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, the prison was holding just under 1,000 prisoners at the time of our inspection, some way short of its operating capacity of 1,090. Our last full inspection of the prison was in 2018, which was followed by an independent review of progress in 2019. Overall, and notwithstanding the very real challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, outcomes for prisoners at Swaleside remained disappointing. In
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World Prisons. (2026). HMP Swaleside. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-swaleside
"HMP Swaleside." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-swaleside.
@misc{worldprisons-hmp-swaleside,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {HMP Swaleside},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-swaleside},
urldate = {2026-07-21}
}