Prisoners in The Mount have 'too little to do'

Unannounced inspections at The Mount in Bovingdon as well as Brixton found that most of the 1,716 inmates at both sites were locked up for 22 hours a day and more on weekends.

Reports from the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons show they were failing to provide the resettlement and training functions crucial to inmates’ rehabilitation.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said the findings “raise serious questions” about the lack of importance that prisons are giving to providing inmates with genuinely purposeful ways to spend their time”.

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The Mount, along with Brixton, was given the lowest “poor” rating for purposeful activity after inmates said they spent 22 hours or more a day locked up in their cells.

The picture was even worse at weekends, the inspectors found.

Outside The Mount. Credit: PA

Mr Taylor said in a blog post: “In these jails we found delays in getting prisoners back into education, training and work, often created by too few activity spaces, poor allocation processes, staff shortages and a tentative approach to reopening the regime.”

Delays were found in getting prisoners back into education, training and work, often caused by too few activity spaces, poor allocation processes, staff shortages and a tentative approach to reopening the regime.

Mr Taylor said it was “particularly depressing” to see workshops and classrooms that should have been thriving, either empty or with just a handful of prisoners taking part in activities.

Outside The Mount. Credit: PA

The Mount was judged to be insufficiently good in the area of ‘respect’.

Safety at The Mount was rated as mostly good.

Ofsted rated the overall education provision at The Mount as “inadequate”.

It was found it offered too few opportunities to gain accredited qualifications, while poor attendance and lateness blows, often due to delayed unlocks, dealt a blow to a prisoners’ ability to learn.

Mr Taylor added: “It costs taxpayers approximately £45,000 to keep someone in prison for a year.

“It is in all our interests that our prisons, particularly category C jails, invest more effort in giving prisoners the skills to resettle successfully when they are released.”