Thorn Cross scrutiny visit 2021
Report for Thorn Cross Prison
Summary
Thorn Cross is an open prison in Cheshire holding adult male prisoners, most of whom are serving lengthy or indeterminate sentences. At the time of our visit, there were 316 prisoners, 17% fewer than at our last full inspection in 2016 and slightly below the uncrowded capacity of 325. The fundamental purpose of Thorn Cross is to prepare prisoners for their return to the community and previous full inspections found that it had performed this role consistently well. However, the pandemic had severely and understandably disrupted the prison’s ability to sustain previous levels of pre-release preparation and support. While much resettlement provision remained in place and key tasks such as parole assessments were being completed, there was far less release on temporary licence (ROTL) for the purposes of work or training than in the past. Face-to-face contact with offender managers and resettlement support services had also been very limited and prisoners were often frustrated.