Wormwood Scrubs independent review of progress 2026
Report for Wormwood Scrubs Prison
Summary
we found at our last inspection At our previous inspections of HMP Wormwood Scrubs in 2021 and 2025, we made the following judgements . Figure 1: HMP Wormwood Scrubs healthy prison outcomes in 2021 and 2025 At the full inspection, we found a prison with many strengths, but safety and purposeful activity had deteriorated and there had been a lack of investment in the prison’s infrastructure. An inflexible policy of separating units and landings caused numerous problems, including restricted access to visits, education, work and the library. Time out of cell was poor and there were frequent regime curtailments. Ofsted identified concerns including insufficient activity spaces, a narrow curriculum and poor attendance. A third of prisoners were testing positive for drugs, driving an illicit economy and associated criminality, and the measures taken to address the problem were not strong enough.