Lowdham Grange scrutiny visit 2021
Report for Lowdham Grange Prison
Summary
Prisoners’ access to the library was poor and the prison did not promote it enough as a resource, which was concerning given the need to promote in-cell activity to improve their well-being. Education staff were directly employed by Serco and had remained on site since March. Education leaders recognised that they had been too slow to reinstate a broad curriculum and, while it was good that the proportion of prisoners engaging in education had increased during this period, too few had had their new skills and knowledge accredited. The prison had taken far too long to introduce some critical aspects of prison life, such as family contact through Purple Visits video calling. Lack of staffing had limited the contact between prisoners and their prison offender manager for several months, and over half of the population had not received a review of their risk and sentence plan in the previous year. Recategorisation reviews were timely, but population pressures in other prisons often affected moves of prisoners to lower category prisons.