Eastwood Park inspection report 2025
Report for Eastwood Park Prison and Young Offender Institution
Summary
Eastwood Park held 360 women from a wide catchment area across England and South Wales. The governor had successfully argued for the regrading of this South Gloucestershire jail as a ‘complex prison’; a decision that will, I hope, mean the establishment loses fewer managers to better paid jobs elsewhere. Determined leadership from the governor and her senior team had led to the improvements in safety, but all other judgements remained the same, at reasonably good for respect and preparation for release and not sufficiently good for purposeful activity. Levels of self-harm, violence and use of force were still some of the highest in the women’s estate. The rate of assaults against staff were the highest of all women’s prisons and often occurred during restraints when staff used force to prevent self-harm. However, there were now much better standards of care than we found at our 2022 inspection or at our recent thematic visit.