HMP The Mount safer but failing as a training prison, inspectors found in 2022

HMP The Mount had become safer since 2018, but staff shortages and a lack of activity were undermining its role as a training prison, inspectors found.

The inspectorate’s report, published in June 2022, followed an inspection between 14 and 25 March 2022. The Mount is a category C training and resettlement prison for adult men near Hemel Hempstead. It held 992 men at the time. More than two-fifths were assessed as high or very high risk of harm to others.

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said failings in education and activity were completely undermining the prison’s stated purpose. He wrote that “leaving men locked in a cell for most of the day surely does not lead to better citizens on release”.

How the prison was graded

Inspectors judge every prison against four healthy prison tests. At the previous inspection in 2018, The Mount scored poor or not sufficiently good on all four.

This time safety had improved to reasonably good. Rehabilitation and release planning had improved slightly to not sufficiently good. Respect stayed not sufficiently good. Purposeful activity, which covers education, work and time out of cell, remained poor, the lowest grade.

Of six key recommendations from 2018, the prison had achieved two. Inspectors took account of the prison’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic in their judgements.

Clearly, addressing the weaknesses in purposeful activity and rehabilitation and release planning is a critical priority for a training prison leaving men locked in a cell for most of the day surely does not lead to better citizens on release.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Staff shortages and time out of cell

Officer shortages had been a problem well before the pandemic. At the time of the inspection, 40% of staff could not be deployed to operational duties. The regime remained severely restricted, and many men were locked up for 22 hours a day.

Prisoners were very frustrated by limited access to the library, gym and social visits. Corporate worship, meaning group religious services, was still suspended. Staff who remained felt they did not have enough time to support prisoners.

Ofsted, which inspects prison education, judged education, work and skills inadequate, its lowest grade. The prison had not provided enough activity places, and men who had places were not always usefully occupied.

Rehabilitation and release planning was the main subject of prisoners’ complaints to inspectors. Opportunities to progress through sentences were insufficient, and there were few interventions beyond accredited programmes to help men reduce their risk. Transfers to open prisons often took far too long.

Improvements in safety

Leaders had taken proactive steps to improve safety, and these were beginning to work. Most prisoners said they felt safe. The rate of assaults was lower than in 2018, and fewer were serious. Staff used force less often, and oversight of force had improved significantly.

Leaders had divided the site into two parts, which allowed better supervision of prisoners’ movements. Escorted moves had further improved order. However, men on one site found it hard to reach activities on the other.

Belong, a restorative justice charity, gave good one-to-one support and helped resolve conflicts. Inspectors found few other tools to encourage better behaviour. In the segregation unit, cells were austere, with no in-cell electricity and unscreened toilets.

Steps to disrupt the drug supply were having an effect, and far fewer men said drugs were easy to get. But drug testing had not resumed, and staff completed fewer than half of requested cell searches. Inspectors called both major gaps.

Support for men at risk of self-harm was limited, and many spent most of the day locked in their cells. Recorded self-harm was slightly higher than in 2018. There had been two self-inflicted deaths since then.

Daily life and later reports

Investment from HMPPS, the prison and probation service, had helped make the prison clean and decent. Prisoners were more positive about clean bedding, clothing and communal areas. Yet some cells and communal areas, especially on the older site, were tired and needed refurbishment. Many cells lacked furniture or had broken furniture.

Two-thirds of prisoners said staff treated them with respect. That figure fell to 43% among Muslim prisoners. Inspectors saw many examples of staff not challenging rule-breaking. Only 29% of prisoners rated the food good, against 45% in similar prisons.

Some practice stood out. A prisoner team checked conditions against the inspectorate’s expectations and reported back to leaders. Pharmacy and medicines management were very good, and mental health services had improved.

Inspectors have reported on The Mount again since, with an independent review of progress in March 2023 and a full inspection published in February 2025.