Essex prison described as rat-infested and piled with rubbish
It comes on the back of an inspection of HMP Chelmsford in August
Last updated 24th Nov 2021
A report published today has described conditions at HMP Chelmsford in Essex as rat-infested and rife with violence.
Penal reform charity Howard League have called it the worst prison inspection report they have ever seen.
Prisoners say they have been victimised by staff, who were found to be demoralised and disengaged from the needs of the inmates.
Robert Preece is from Howard League: "Prisoners have been locked up for 23 hours with nothing to do. We hear that prisoners have been unable to access even the most basic essentials. That has led to rising distress and rising tension within the prison which explains why the safety record is so poor."
The situation was so serious that following the inspection in August, the chief inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor invoked the Urgent Notification process in August, giving the Secretary of State for Justice 28 days to respond publicly with a plan to improve the prison.
In response, Dominic Raab announced plans to give "intensive support to Chelmsford prison to raise standards, support staff and protect vulnerable prisoners", which included bringing in experienced staff and refurbishing existing facilities at the prison.
"We have a detailed action plan to help drive down violence, rehabilitate offenders, and reduce reoffending", he said.
But Mr Preece believes the focus should also include reducing the number of prisoners housed at HMP Chelmsford.
He says: "This is a very old building, but it's being crammed with more people than it is designed to hold. At the end of last month, Chelmsford prison was supposed to be holding no more than 545 men, but at the time of the inspection in August this year there were more than 700 men.
"In recent years there are prisons up and down England and Wales at the moment holding more men than they had designed to hold that leads to rising tension. It leads to problems that will spill out into the community when people come to be released without the having been given the support they require to lead crime free lives on the outside.
"It's very serious when people are being held in their cells for 23 hours a day with nothing to do without being given access to education, access to training, access to employment, and are left unable to get the skills that they might require to find jobs on the outside.
"This is happening in Chelmsford and it's happening elsewhere in the country. We cannot go on cramming more and more people into jails without any thought for the consequences, because it leads to more crime and puts us all in danger", he adds.