Last inspectedFebruary 2025Full inspection, unannounced
Source: HM Inspectorate of Prisons report published 12 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, respect and purposeful activity; reasonably good for preparation for release. It held 1,213 people at the time, against an operational capacity of 1,232. It is run by Serco. An independent review of progress was published in February 2026.
Safety: not sufficiently good · Respect: not sufficiently good · Purposeful activity: not sufficiently good · Preparation for release: reasonably good Read our story
Safety: reasonably good · Respect: reasonably good · Purposeful activity: poor · Rehabilitation and release planning: not sufficiently good Read our story
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.
A High Court judge found a “series of failings” at the privately run London prison, which kept a young man in custody for almost six days after a court sentence meant he should go free.
Violence had risen sharply at the Serco-run London prison, and health care failings pulled its respect grade down. Inspectors said a new leadership team had stopped the decline and created a sense of optimism.
The inspectorate's report on HMP Thameside, published in March 2022, found remand prisoners locked up for up to 23.5 hours a day and education rated inadequate, alongside excellent offender management work.
Prison News staff
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