A PRISON near Rugby has been branded unsafe following an unannounced inspection earlier this year.
HMP Onley was marked as ‘poor’ – the lowest possible judgement – after the number of assaults within the prison tripled in a four year period.
Inspectors also found there had been a dramatic decline in standards since the last inspection in 2012 – particularly in safety – having been judged ‘good’ in 2012.
They also raised concern there was no comprehensive violence or drug reduction strategy, most prisoners did not have an up-to-date risk assessment and offender supervisors were often moved to other duties.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke said the leadership of the prison needed to get a grip of the problems.
He added: “The challenge for the management team at Onley is to find ways to halt the decline.
“There are clear lessons to be learned from what the inspection revealed about the reactive approach that had been taken to too many issues.
“Staff shortages have had an impact on many areas of service delivery, but they did not offer an excuse for a decline in standards of the severity that we found.”
Michael Spurr, chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, said: “As the Chief Inspector points out, there is much good work being done at Onley.
“But the deterioration in safety is unacceptable and reversing this is the Governor’s top priority.
“Additional staff are being recruited to meet the commitments set out in the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper and the Governor will use these additional resources to drive forward the improvements required.”
Despite the poor inspection, the prison was marked well in areas including staff-prisoner relationships, health services and the range and quality of education and training opportunities.
The prison’s population has changed significantly since 2012, when it was re-designated as a resettlement prison for Greater London. At the time of the inspection, HMP Onley held approximately 740 prisoners.
