HMP Wandsworth failed on almost every measure, according to a damning report from the prison inspectorate.
The report, published in August 2024, followed an inspection that ended in May 2024. Inspectors found “chaos on the wings”. Staff on most units could not say where all their prisoners were during the working day.
The prison had no reliable roll check to confirm that every man was present. That came months after a very high-profile escape in late 2023.
The findings led the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, to issue an Urgent Notification to the Justice Secretary on 8 May 2024. That process requires the government to respond publicly within 28 days, setting out how it will improve outcomes. The general election delayed publication of the response.
The grades
The inspectorate judges adult prisons against four healthy prison tests: safety, respect, purposeful activity and preparation for release. Purposeful activity covers education, work and time out of cell.
Wandsworth scored poor, the lowest grade, for safety, respect and purposeful activity. It scored not sufficiently good for preparation for release.
At the previous full inspection in 2021, inspectors had rated safety and respect as not sufficiently good. Both have now fallen to poor. Purposeful activity stayed poor.
The prison held 1,521 men at the time, against an operational capacity of 1,538. About 51% were on remand, awaiting trial or sentence, and 46% were foreign nationals. On average, 476 men a month needed a mental health referral.
The prison had achieved only one of nine key recommendations from 2021. The inspectorate later carried out an independent review of progress, published in May 2025.
We found chaos on the wings, and staff across most units were unable to confirm where all their prisoners were during the working day.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons report
Deaths, self-harm and drugs
Ten men had taken their own lives since the last inspection, seven of them in the previous 12 months. Self-harm was high and rising.
Staff failed to answer around 40% of emergency cell bells within five minutes. Leaders had not reviewed the action plan drawn up after deaths in custody.
Violence, including serious assaults, had risen and stood higher than in most similar prisons. In the inspectorate’s survey, 69% of prisoners said they had felt unsafe at Wandsworth.
Drugs were widespread. Just over half of the men surveyed said drugs were easy to get, and the smell of cannabis was everywhere. Leaders had suspended drug testing between August 2023 and January 2024. In February 2024, 44% of men tested at random had a positive result.
Locked up and unoccupied
Wandsworth, built 170 years ago, was badly overcrowded. Cells were cramped and poorly equipped, and the prison remained too dirty. Showers and heating needed major investment.
Most men had no job and spent more than 22 hours a day in their cells. They had no idea whether or when staff would unlock them, or whether they would get fresh air.
Some men missed appointments and could not collect vital medication. Others struggled to shower or exercise in the short time out of cell.
The prison lacked enough work and education places, and made poor use of the ones it had. Attendance was far too low, and prisoner pay gave little reason to take part in education.
Only 41% of men surveyed said staff treated them with respect, well below comparable prisons. Staff delivered no key work, the regular one-to-one sessions meant to build relationships.
Staff absences often stopped men reaching health care, and around 24% of clinic appointments went unattended. A costly new health centre, due to open in the summer of 2022, still stood unused.
Leadership failings
The prison had a full complement of officers. Yet sickness, restricted duties and training kept over a third away from operational work each day. The result was curtailed regimes and burnt-out staff.
Inexperience ran through every grade. Most leaders held temporary promotions, and new staff learned from inexperienced frontline managers. Senior leaders were rarely seen on the wings.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons said staff were not wilfully neglectful. Rather, they lacked direction, training and steady support from leaders.
He traced the failings to poor leadership at every level of the prison, the prison service and the Ministry of Justice. He wrote of “a degree of despondency amongst prisoners that I have not come across in my time as Chief Inspector”.
Inspectors raised 15 key concerns, seven of them priorities. The Chief Inspector of Prisons said Wandsworth needed permanent, experienced leaders at all levels who were invested in its long-term future.
About this story
This story is based on HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ report on HMP Wandsworth, published on 6 August 2024, following an inspection that ended in May 2024. All figures and judgements are the inspectorate’s. Read the full inspection report · See the prison’s profile in our directory.
