Huntercombe inspection report 2023

Summary

Huntercombe, in Oxfordshire is a category C prison that held 468 foreign national prisoners at the time of our inspection. When we last inspected in 2017, apart from in our rehabilitation and release planning test, where we awarded our lowest score, the prison was doing well. At our scrutiny visit during the pandemic in 2020, Huntercombe continued to be one of the best performing prisons in the country. At this inspection we found a safe and respectful prison where prisoners who were often dealing with an uncertain future due to their immigration status were well looked after. The prison was led by an excellent governor who was very visible around the jail, had high expectations of his staff and prisoners and encouraged innovation from his team. For example, the impressive ‘Stoic’ programme that had been developed by the PE department aimed to support prisoners to understand themselves better and learn to make more considered choices in the future.

Inspection ratings