Martin Jones found cause for concern over public protection in two probation regions, and published youth justice reports on Neath Port Talbot and Wandsworth.
A statistical report finds that 18.2 per cent of prisoners in England and Wales are Muslim, against 6.5 per cent of the UK population, and calls for urgent responses.
Prisoners can send anonymous messages from in-cell devices to trained Shout volunteers. Around 1,300 conversations took place in the past four months alone.
Inspectors found a safe, decent women's prison with excellent key work, but staff shortages left too many women leaving without a settled home.
Inspectors upgraded safety and respect at the category C training prison to reasonably good. They found high drug use, rising self-harm and weak education and sentence planning.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons found progress at both London jails on return visits in 2026, after critical reports in 2025, but said too many men still spend long periods in their cells.
James McEwan said a fall in the prison population since the Sentencing Act 2026 took effect should let governors run more consistent regimes.
Researchers from three universities estimate that between 3,000 and 3,700 cases of avoidable healthcare harm occur in prisons in England every year.
Inspectors raised three grades at the Norfolk training prison and praised its education and equality work, but found weak scrutiny of force, high drug use and crumbling buildings.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the case of a man given Detention for Public Protection at 18, after six similar sentences were quashed in a fortnight.
