Pentonville prisoners held beyond release dates as inspectors issue Urgent Notification

Staff at HMP Pentonville had failed to calculate sentences accurately, leaving many prisoners illegally held beyond their release date, according to the prison inspectorate. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor set out the finding in an Urgent Notification letter dated 16 July 2025. The inspectorate published it in July 2025.

He sent the letter to the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. It followed an unannounced inspection of the north London prison between 30th June and 10th July 2025.

An Urgent Notification is a formal letter in which the Chief Inspector of Prisons tells the Justice Secretary about urgent and significant concerns at a prison. The Justice Secretary must respond publicly within 28 days, setting out how the concerns will be addressed.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons wrote that leaders had insufficient grip of critical areas of delivery. In his words, they were “failing to ensure even the most basic standards were maintained”. The problems with sentence calculation had arisen in the previous six months.

A long record of poor performance

Pentonville is a category B reception prison for men. It takes people from the courts, both on remand and after sentence. The letter described it as an overcrowded, inner-city, Victorian reception prison which is difficult to run well.

This was the fifth time inspectors had visited Pentonville since 2015. The letter included a table of healthy prison assessments, which score outcomes from 4 for good down to 1 for poor.

At this inspection, Pentonville received the lowest score, poor, for safety, purposeful activity and preparation for release. Respect scored 2, meaning outcomes were not sufficiently good. Purposeful activity covers education, work and time out of cell.

The table showed poor safety scores in 2015, 2017 and 2019, and a score of 2 for safety in 2022. Respect had scored 2 at every inspection since 2017. Many concerns raised in 2022 remained unresolved, and the letter stated that 80% of them had not been addressed.

Healthy prison assessments since 2015 Safety Respect Purposeful activity Preparation for release 2025 1 2 1 1 2022 2 2 1 2 2019 1 2 2 2 2017 1 2 2 3 16/07/25-Pentonville www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons 2015 1 1 1 2 Healthy prison assessment scores: 1 – outcomes for prisoners are poor 2 – outcomes for prisoners are not sufficiently good 3 – outcomes for prisoners are reasonably good 4 – outcomes for prisoners are good I have issued an Urgent Notification for the following reasons: • • • • • • • • • • Leaders had insufficient grip of critical areas of delivery in the prison and were failing to ensure even the most basic standards were maintained.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Chaotic first nights

The letter described the care and support for new prisoners during their first few days as wholly inadequate. It called first night and induction arrangements chaotic and even frightening.

Men lived in dirty, ill-equipped cells. Inspectors found cells without key items, including bedding, furniture, telephones and pillows.

Population pressure meant the induction wing lacked space. As a result, staff dispersed some new arrivals to other wings around the jail. Staff on those wings often did not know who the men were or where they were, which raised the risk for these vulnerable people still further.

On one wing, staff could not account for where their prisoners were during the day.

Failures in suicide and self-harm care

Three people had taken their own lives at Pentonville in 2025. Internal investigations and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman had repeatedly identified deficiencies. The prison had not addressed them.

Inspectors found a widespread lack of support for prisoners at imminent risk of self-harm. Many of these men lived in squalid conditions.

Some prisoners at highest risk need constant supervision, where a member of staff watches them at all times. The letter called oversight of these prisoners “shockingly poor”.

During the inspection, inspectors found staff who did not know the name of the prisoner in their care. Two staff members were reading books and one was asleep. In another case, the officer responsible was completely absent.

In the inspectorate’s survey, 44% of prisoners said they felt unsafe. The Chief Inspector of Prisons said this was the highest figure he had recorded in a reception prison during his time in the role.

Life on the wings

Inspectors observed chaotic wings and staff who failed to challenge poor behaviour. Just 54% of prisoners felt that most staff treated them with respect. Half reported experiencing victimisation.

The letter recognised some highly committed frontline staff. But it said too many accepted poor living conditions and failed to provide even basic care. Many seemed unable or unwilling to respond to legitimate everyday requests.

The prison had fewer than 600 activity spaces for a population of 1,207. That was enough for most men to work part-time. The governor wanted every prisoner in part-time work, but an ineffective allocations system left many places unfilled. Many of those who did get places did not attend.

A large majority of prisoners spent more than 22 hours a day locked in their cells.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons accepted that the building made the prison hard to run. Even so, he wrote that too many of the failures were “firmly within the control of HMPPS leaders”, referring to HM Prison and Probation Service. He blamed a lack of focus on the basics and ineffective oversight and assurance systems.

He found that most staff wanted to do a good job. After years of poor performance, however, too many had become disillusioned about whether improvement was possible. He said the governor would need significant support and investment from HMPPS, including a stronger senior team.

Inspectors have reported on Pentonville again since, with a full inspection published in September 2025 and an independent review of progress published in April 2026.