Oakwood inspection report 2024
Report for Oakwood Prison
Summary
This is a report that should be read by anyone who has an interest in improving outcomes for prisoners. It concerns a prison which is, in many ways, atypical, bucking trends in challenging times for the prison system. Operated by the private contractor, G4S, since it opened in 2012, HMP Oakwood is a very large category C training prison for up to 2,134 adult men, near Wolverhampton. With perhaps the exception of its modernity, the prison has few particular advantages. It holds a broad range of prisoners, from those serving relatively short sentences to lifers and vulnerable prisoners, and has a significant throughput of men from an extended catchment area. The complexity of the population is perhaps best evidenced by the increase among those considered to be a high risk of harm to others, now some 80% of all those held.