Last inspectedJune 2025Full inspection, unannounced
Source: HM Inspectorate of Prisons report published 15 September 2025; visiting details from GOV.UK · last checked 29 October 2026
Latest inspection
At its last full inspection (June 2025; report published September 2025), inspectors found outcomes for prisoners were not sufficiently good for safety, purposeful activity and preparation for release; reasonably good for respect. It held 1,013 people at the time, against an operational capacity of 1,094.
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: not sufficiently good Read our story
Safety: not sufficiently good · Respect: reasonably good · Purposeful activity: poor · Rehabilitation and release planning: not sufficiently good Read our story
Mesut Olgun met the criteria for constant supervision when he arrived at the prison in 2018, but staff placed him on four checks an hour, and a night patrol officer failed to make them.
Inspectors found some improvement at the Worcestershire reception prison, but violence remained above similar jails, new arrivals had little to do and four governors had come and gone in three years.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons' report on HMP Hewell, published in March 2023, found excellent progress at the West Midlands jail since 2019, but poor purposeful activity and weak support for new arrivals.
Prison News staff
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