Eastwood Park inspection report 2023
Report for Eastwood Park Prison and Young Offender Institution
Summary
Eastwood Park is a women’s prison in Gloucestershire that held 348 prisoners at the time of our inspection. Like the other closed prisons in the women’s estate, it holds a range of prisoners from those on remand to others who are serving indeterminate sentences or life. In our survey 83% of women told us that they were suffering from mental health difficulties and many were caught in the cycle of homelessness, drug or alcohol misuse and offending. This made for a challenging environment which required highly skilled professionals to provide support for those in their care. In recent years, the prison had struggled to recruit and retain enough staff and at the time of our inspection a third of officer and operational support grades were not available. These shortages were set to worsen with the imminent withdrawal of detached duty staff who had been supporting the prison in recent months.