The Prison Service will send extra staff to HMP Swaleside and move sex offenders out, in a drive to make the jail safer.
The changes appear in a 21-point action plan for the prison, published on 14 January.
The plan follows an Urgent Notification on the high-security prison from Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, in December. He reported high levels of violence and widespread drug use. He also said staff failed to enforce the rules and the wings were filthy.
Extra staff and new security
Under the plan, “An additional 14 staff in key tactical roles will be appointed to bolster safety and security.” They are due in post by March 2026.
The new posts include Dedicated Search Team Officers to find weapons and drugs, and dog handlers. There will also be Local Response Team Specialist Officers to step in when violence breaks out.
The plan also sets out the removal of prisoners convicted of sexual offences. This will happen once capacity and configuration in the Long Term and High Security Estate allow. They will go to prisons better suited to their risk profiles and rehabilitative needs, the plan says. The target date is January 2027.
Swaleside will also get a new safety strategy and a gang management plan. A new local incentives policy will reward good behaviour and tackle vandalism and poor behaviour.
Exercise yards will be split up “to improve safety and controlled access”. Temporary grilles now cover windows where the old ones had broken or gone missing. Staff are designing stronger grilles and netting over outdoor areas to combat drones.
A ‘Cleaner Prisons Programme’ will tackle indoor and outdoor areas. By March 2026, the B, C and D units will have new decoration, flooring and lighting.
‘Deeply concerning’
Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said: “The Chief Inspector’s findings at HMP Swaleside were deeply concerning and clearly not acceptable. This reflects the scale of the crisis we inherited across our prison system.”
He said he had visited the prison the previous week and seen staff working hard to make improvements. The plan would support them in that work, he said.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons introduced Urgent Notifications in 2017. Within the long-term high security estate, only Manchester and Woodhill had received one before the Kent jail.
When he issued the notification in December, Mr Taylor said: “The appalling outcomes we found at Swaleside, holding some of the most dangerous men in the country, represent serious failings by leaders in the prison service to address the systemic problems at this troubled jail.”
He also criticised the prison’s leadership: “It was shameful that such an important and risky prison had been left without a permanent governor for such a long period.”
The current governor had been in post for only five months, Mr Taylor said. She had drawn up plans for improvement, but progress on serious problems had been slow. He praised many staff for impressive work in very hard conditions. But he said inspectors had sensed a palpable tension and a pervasive sense of despair in the jail.
