Isis inspection report 2022
Report for Isis Prison
Summary
Isis is a modern, category C prison in south-east London that held 595 young men at the time of our inspection. There was a high turnover of prisoners with an average of 80 arrivals each month, but in spite of this instability, the prison retained a good atmosphere with generally positive relationships between prisoners and staff. This was in part driven by some excellent work on equality and diversity that sought both to understand and respond to the experiences of prisoners, and to use data to make sure that there was fair and proportionate treatment of different groups. The energetic and well-liked governor was behind much of what was effective at Isis; she knew her jail well, had advocated for the prison to return to its original mission of housing young adults, and had personally driven through her priority to improve understanding among staff of the needs of prisoners. In the areas where she had paid most attention, good progress had been made, resulting in our highest score for the healthy prison test of respect. Ongoing improvements to the living conditions were taking place, although parts of the prison were not clean enough.