Bullingdon inspection report 2023
Report for Bullingdon Prison
Summary
HM Prison Bullingdon, a 30-year-old facility located near Bicester in Oxfordshire, currently operates as a reception prison, holding just under 1,000 adult men. Serving courts in the Thames Valley and other parts of central southern England, the prison has a large number of unconvicted or relatively short stay prisoners: 60 or more new prisoners arrive each week and nearly three-quarters of the population are there for less than six months. As with many prisons across England and Wales, Bullingdon has grappled with the difficulties of a much reduced and inexperienced staff group. Despite these challenges, at this inspection we found a prison that remained reasonably safe and respectful, which was consistent with our previous inspection findings in 2019. Outcomes in rehabilitation and release planning remained unchanged and were still not sufficiently good, and we judged the provision of purposeful activity to have deteriorated, to the extent that outcomes for prisoners in this area were now poor. With the operational challenge faced with such a transitory population it was reassuring to see that prisoners were received well by the prison and given a reasonable level of support and assessment after their arrival, although there was limited extension of these assessments to prepare them to make good use of their time in the prison.