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A–D category: Not yet verified.
Predominant function (2025/26): Reception
Ministry of Justice performance classification. This describes the stated performance year, not a current A–D category or the categories of every prisoner.
Monthly snapshot: 24 August 2026
Operational capacity is the capacity reported for this prison in the same monthly bulletin.
Official monthly spreadsheet · Ministry of Justice publication
Prison site location
View on the prisons map
Location information checked 13 September 2026.
27 April 2026
we found at our last inspection At our previous inspections of HMP Pentonville in 2022 and 2025, we made the following judgements . Figure 1: HMP Pentonville healthy prison outcomes in 2022 and 2025 At our 2025 inspection we found that leaders’ weak oversight was…
30 September 2025
Pentonville is a historic, reception prison in North London that held 1,189 men at the time of this inspection. It is never an easy jail to run, with overcrowded cells, crumbling infrastructure and a fast-changing population that includes many men who are mentally ill, addicted…
18 July 2025
Urgent Notification for HMP Pentonville issued on 16 July 2025. Inspection debriefing paper HMP Pentonville debrief paper ( PDF, 250 KB ) ( PDF, 250 KB ) HM INSPECTORATE OF PRISONS 3rd floor 10 South Colonnade Canary Wharf London E14 4PU Tel: 020 3334 0353…
22 May 2023
we found that outcomes for prisoners were not sufficiently good in our healthy prison tests of safety, respect and rehabilitation and resettlement planning, while purposeful activity was assessed as poor. As we reported then, Pentonville has habitually been one of the more challenging and troubled…
18 October 2022
HMP Pentonville in north London is one the oldest prisons in the country. It received its first prisoners in 1842 and was designed to hold 520 people in single cells. In recent times, it has routinely been one of most challenging and troubled prisons, with…
4 December 2020
This report discusses the findings from a scrutiny visit (SV) to HMP Pentonville. The SV methodology develops the ‘short scrutiny visit’ (SSV, see Glossary of terms) approach that HMI Prisons used to provide independent oversight of custodial establishments from April to July 2020. Our previous…
12 March 2020
the inspection, providing notification of the significant concerns and the reasons for those concerns. See: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/about-hmi-prisons/urgentnotifications/ 4 HMP Pentonville About this report About this report A1 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) is an independent, statutory organisation which reports on the treatment and conditions…
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