Woodhill independent review of progress 2022
Report for Woodhill Prison
Summary
the inspection, the prison held approximately 500 prisoners, which is below its operational capacity (see Glossary), as a result of the closure of one house unit to mitigate staff shortages. 1.2 At our previous inspections of HMP Woodhill in 2018 and 2021, we made the following judgements . Figure 1: HMP Woodhill healthy prison outcomes in 2018 and 2021 Good 4 Reasonabl 3 y good 2 Not sufficiently good 1 Poor 0 Safety Respect Purposeful activity Rehabilitation and release planning 2018 2021 1.3 At our last inspection, in September 2021, we found a prison where standards and outcomes were not sufficiently good, and in the areas of safety and purposeful activity outcomes were judged to be poor. Against nearly all the main measures, the prison was not safe enough and there had been seven self-inflicted deaths since the previous inspection. The daily regime was inadequate, and prisoners had a legitimate lack of confidence in the effectiveness of the staff group. Despite committed and enthusiastic leadership, it was clear that the source of many problems in the prison was the inability to recruit and retain staff.