Last inspectedDecember 2025Full inspection, unannounced
Source: HM Inspectorate of Prisons report published 9 March 2026; visiting details from GOV.UK · last checked 29 October 2026
Latest inspection
At its last full inspection (December 2025; report published March 2026), inspectors found outcomes for prisoners were not sufficiently good for safety and purposeful activity; reasonably good for respect; good for preparation for release. It held 307 people at the time, against an operational capacity of 310.
Safety: poor · Respect: not sufficiently good · Purposeful activity: poor · Rehabilitation and release planning: reasonably good Read our story
The Chief Inspector of Prisons formally told the Justice Secretary of urgent and significant concerns. The government must respond publicly within 28 days. Read our story
The Chief Inspector of Prisons formally told the Justice Secretary of urgent and significant concerns. The government must respond publicly within 28 days. Read our story
A Prisons and Probation Ombudsman report into the death of Michael Marsh found the Governor first broke the news to the mother of another prisoner with the same name, and raised concerns about his suicide monitoring.
Inspectors found steadier leadership and strong release planning at the Victorian jail, three years after an Urgent Notification. Self-harm had nearly halved but remained too high, and cells were badly overcrowded.
The inspectorate's report on HMP Exeter, published in February 2023, found high self-harm, chaotic induction and unstable leadership, and led the Chief Inspector of Prisons to issue a second urgent notification.
In November 2022 the Chief Inspector of Prisons issued an urgent notification on HMP Exeter for the second inspection running, citing self-inflicted deaths, record self-harm and unstable leadership.
Prison News staff
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