Thameside inspection report 2025
Report for Thameside Prison
Summary
Thameside is a large, modern category B reception prison in South East London and held 1,213 men at the time of this inspection. On this visit, levels of violence were much higher than at our 2021 inspection and were often caused by gang issues and the ingress of illegal drugs. This led to a reduction in our healthy prison score for safety, from reasonably good to not sufficiently good. Data showed that the rate of assaults on prisoners was the sixth highest among category B reception prisons. The health care at Thameside was some of the worst that inspectors have seen in recent years. There was a huge inconsistency in the service provided and some critical failings, such as it taking months to get prisoners to hospital despite being given a two-week cancer referral and those with asthma not getting their inhalers for days after arrival.