HMP Millsike was unready, understaffed and unsafe when it opened in April 2025, according to the first annual report from its Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).
The report criticises the Prison Service and the Prison Officers’ Association (POA). It also warns that Government pressure to open more cells will undo the work done to stabilise the jail during 2026. The Board says other prisons face the same danger in the near future.
HMP Millsike is in the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
Chaos at opening
According to the Board, the prison opened in chaos. Staff had not even established basic processes such as drawing keys, locking doors and counting prisoners.
Staff shortages persisted, and the prison’s remote location made recruitment hard. Most staff lacked experience and seemed unsure about the regime and processes. The Board says this affected the safety, security and fair treatment of prisoners.
Board members expressed astonishment that Millsike repeated design faults from other recently opened prisons. Mitie, which runs the jail, had to solve them. The faults include blind spots for officers on landings, the lack of a gym, no air conditioning in workshops or houseblocks, and too little reception space.
The Justice Secretary has told governors of established jails to look at turning spaces such as laundries and offices into cells. The report presents Millsike as a warning about filling prisons without the staff and facilities to run them.
The Board voiced disappointment that HMPPS seemed to accept poor running of the prison because new jails take several years to settle. In its view, HMPPS regarded inhumane treatment of prisoners as an acceptable price. According to the Board, Lord Timpson said a new prison needs four years to bed in. He also said the Inspectorate waits around 18 months before it visits. The Board points out that hundreds, even thousands, of prisoners suffer from that delay.
The IMB also criticised the POA for blocking plans to let new recruits spend time alongside officers in established prisons. Because of the union’s opposition, the Board says, staff appointed in 2024 had little chance to gain experience before the prison opened.
Improvement under threat
The Board reports that many of these problems have improved, or are improving, since an experienced Interim Director arrived in February 2026. It describes the library as an ‘inspirational and enthusiastic place’ that has lifted morale.
Rebecca Major, who chairs the Millsike IMB, said Mitie was new to running prisons. “Either they underestimated the task or were not sufficiently experienced to take it on,” she said of its mobilisation team.
She said a chronic shortage of officers lay behind many remaining problems. The report describes a prisoner who regularly self-harmed despite constant watch. After the Interim Director arrived, the prison paused new arrivals and simplified the regime to get the basics working.
Ms Major said that pause should have lasted until the prison had enough experienced officers. Instead, Millsike faces continuing pressure to take prisoners under its contract, with officer numbers at a worrying level. Regime curtailments now happen daily. “Without careful cooperation between Mitie and HMPPS, HMP Millsike will revert to being the unsafe, unfair, and unhappy community we found last year,” she said.
Joe Chapman runs the Millsike Community Forum, which campaigns for improvements at the prison. He said the IMB had covered the issues well and upheld most of the evidence the forum had given since last November. “The report provides us with a little hope,” he said. He also noted the Board’s warning that pressure to fill Millsike could damage the progress made.
