Norwich inspection report 2026
Report for Norwich Prison
Summary
Under the strong leadership of a long-serving and effective governor, Norwich, a reception prison with additional category C and D functions, had made some good progress since our last inspection. In our healthy prison assessment for safety the prison had improved to ‘reasonably good’ and the rating for purposeful activity had improved to ‘not sufficiently good’, from ‘poor’. Outcomes in the preparation for release and respect tests remained ‘reasonably good’. Recent cuts to the education provision by the prison service had led to a reduction in the offer to prisoners, particularly to those on the category C side of the jail. Many described being bored and demotivated and those who were unemployed or retired were spending too much time behind their doors. On the main site, prisoners convicted of sexual offences living in the pods on M wing spent all day in the textiles and printing workshop, but elsewhere there were too many men underemployed doing meaningless wing work.