Wakefield independent review of progress 2026
Report for Wakefield Prison
Summary
we found at our last inspection At our previous inspections of HMP Wakefield in 2022 and 2025, we made the following judgements . Figure 1: HMP Wakefield healthy prison outcomes in 2022 and 2025 Note: rehabilitation and release planning became ‘preparation for release’ in October 2023. In 2025, the prison still faced significant challenges. The infrastructure was deteriorating and the population was changing, with more younger prisoners arriving, and fewer being convicted of sexual offences. Staff shortages had led to restricted regimes and prisoners spending longer periods locked in their cells. Violence had increased sharply and many prisoners felt unsafe, with no clear strategy in place to address this.