Last inspectedFebruary 2025Full inspection, unannounced
Source: HM Inspectorate of Prisons report published 6 May 2025; visiting details from GOV.UK · last checked 29 October 2026
Latest inspection
At its last full inspection (February 2025; report published May 2025), inspectors found outcomes for prisoners were not sufficiently good for safety and purposeful activity; reasonably good for respect and preparation for release. It held 1,937 people at the time, against an operational capacity of 2,000.
Healthy prison tests: inspectors grade four areas from 1 (poor) to 4 (good).
Inspection history
Safety: not sufficiently good · Respect: reasonably good · Purposeful activity: not sufficiently good · Preparation for release: reasonably good Read our story
Safety: reasonably good · Respect: reasonably good · Purposeful activity: not sufficiently good · Rehabilitation and release planning: not sufficiently good Read our story
Many of the first prisoners freed under the Sentencing Act scheme in October left without tags or homes, and one Welsh prison saw 28 per cent of its releases recalled within a week.
A deputy governor at HMP Berwyn told a Wrexham council committee that 28 per cent of men freed in the first tranche of early releases were back inside within seven days.
A prison officer at HMP Berwyn searched the prison database more than 100 times on behalf of a prisoner. A judge at Mold Crown Court described corruption as undermining the work of prisons.
Prison News staff
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