Charlie Taylor

Why are our prisons still in lockdown?

A cell at HM Prison Wayland, Norfolk, 31 May 1985 (Getty Images)

When the Covid pandemic began, one fear was that the virus would tear through prisons and cause up to 5,000 deaths. The prison service, at its best in a crisis, introduced lockdowns and control measures. These were effective and, from March 2020 to September last year, only 207 prisoners died having tested positive for Covid-19 within the previous 60 days or with the virus confirmed as a contributory factor post-mortem.

Locking down was always going to be the easy bit – there is an old prison-officer saying that ‘happiness is door-shaped’ (meaning that prisoners who are locked up can’t do any harm). The hard bit is getting prisoners back into work, education or training. And the lingering effect of lockdown policies still makes it hard today.

Prisoners are not being motivated to get off the wing and into activities. They’ve become bored and indolent

Since May last year, when the final Covid restrictions were lifted, we’ve inspected 20 training prisons – jails that are supposed to be giving lower-risk prisoners the skills they need to resettle successfully after finishing their sentences. It has been a depressing experience – wings are quiet, not because prisoners are in workshops or classrooms, but because they are stuck behind their doors. Sometimes that can mean two men squeezed into a 12ft by 6ft cell, with an unscreened lavatory, a sink and a plastic chair, for up to 22 hours a day. They are learning nothing except how to survive in prison. They pass the time sleeping or watching television.

We have inspected prisons with excellent facilities, such as Onley in Warwickshire, Ranby in Nottinghamshire and Wayland in Norfolk. Yet we found empty workshops and classrooms, greenhouses collapsing and market gardens overgrown. Prisoners, many of whom have never worked in their lives, are not being motivated to get off the wing and into activities.

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