Drones carrying drugs and weapons posed the biggest threat to progress at HMP The Mount, according to the prison inspectorate’s report on the Hertfordshire jail.
The report, published in February 2025, followed an inspection that ended in November 2024. Inspectors found a calmer prison with better relations between staff and prisoners. However, they rated purposeful activity, which covers education, work and time out of cell, as poor.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, said nobody could know the full scale of drone deliveries. Staff had found large packages of drugs, including two kilograms of cannabis in one case, and had recently recovered weapons.
Two experienced prisoners told the Chief Inspector of Prisons that weapons coming into the jail frightened them. He warned: “Without more support from the prison service there is a danger that many of the positives we found on this inspection could be undone.”
How the prison was graded
The inspectorate judges every adult prison against four healthy prison tests: safety, respect, purposeful activity and preparation for release. Each test receives one of four grades, from good down to poor.
The Mount scored reasonably good for safety, respect and preparation for release. It scored poor for purposeful activity, the same grade it received at the previous full inspection in 2022.
That marks progress in two areas. In 2022, inspectors rated respect as not sufficiently good. They gave the same grade to rehabilitation and release planning, the forerunner of the preparation for release test.
The prison held 1,022 men during the inspection, against an operational capacity of 1,032. Operational capacity is the most a prison can safely hold. Around 232 of those men, or 22.7%, were foreign nationals.
The inspectorate also carried out an independent review of progress at The Mount in March 2023. That follow-up visit checked how far leaders had tackled concerns from the 2022 inspection.
Without more support from the prison service there is a danger that many of the positives we found on this inspection could be undone.
Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
Education falls short
Education drew the sharpest criticism. Leaders had not assessed what prisoners needed, and the curriculum did not suit the population.
Other activities had spare places, yet English and maths classes lacked enough places. Nothing catered for the many men who stayed only a few months.
The report said leaders did not realise that teaching fell short. They also struggled to produce accurate attendance figures.
Support for both the most and least able learners was poor. Inspectors described very inadequate teaching or encouragement of reading. Leaders had also moved too slowly on a prison-wide reading strategy.
Access to Open University courses had shrunk. Some men who had paid tuition fees risked repeating a year because they had missed modules.
Inspectors noted that the prison had enough activity for everyone to work at least part-time. Even so, too many prisoners had no job when inspectors visited.
Safety, care and conditions
Care for vulnerable prisoners had improved, and self-harm levels sat below those in similar prisons. However, five prisoners had taken their own lives at the jail since the 2022 inspection.
Violence had risen since the last inspection. Leaders had not looked closely enough at what drove it and had no plan to reduce it.
Leaders had also lost track of men who isolated themselves on the wings. Some lived in unsanitary cells with little to do and nobody to talk to.
The segregation unit stayed grim, with a cage-like exercise yard and still no electricity in the cells. Its staff were capable, though, and men spent less time there than before.
On the wings, a well-led team of prisoners painted cells, replaced flooring and carried out other repairs. The prison drew on men’s existing trades, such as plastering, to do this work.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons singled out the incentivised substance-free living wing, which supports men recovering from addiction. He called it “among the best I have seen”.
Every prisoner now had a laptop, which staff used to share news about the regime. Yet men still had to handwrite complaints and discrimination reports, and the report said this weakened responses and oversight.
Leadership and what must change
Inspectors credited the governor, in post since 2022, with fixing the staff shortages seen at the last inspection. Staff sickness had fallen and the workforce had become more diverse and capable.
Families benefited from more day visits. Some men could earn trips for their children to the nearby Roald Dahl Museum.
The offender management unit, which plans each prisoner’s sentence, was stretched by early releases under the SDS40 scheme. As a result, men tended to get support only at key points in their sentence.
Inspectors raised 15 key concerns and named six as priorities. These covered drones, weak use of data, support for foreign nationals, crowding at medicine hatches and two failings in education.
The prison had achieved six of the 11 key recommendations from 2022, partly achieved two and missed three. In purposeful activity, it had achieved just one of four.
Inspectors also recorded eight examples of notable positive practice. These included a peer-led course that taught men nearing release about tenants’ rights and cooking on a budget.
About this story
This story is based on HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ report on HMP The Mount, published on 24 February 2025, following an inspection that ended in November 2024. All figures and judgements are the inspectorate’s. Read the full inspection report · See the prison’s profile in our directory.
