Prison conditions in the UK are so poor that other countries are refusing to extradite criminals to Britain, according to a new report that lays bare the dire state of our jails.
A report containing testimonies from frontline officers reveals how fire alarms, CCTV, security cameras and even prison gates are broken.
The report, compiled by the Prison Officers Association (POA), found that a control room in one jail had been overrun with a rodent infestation. The prison officer said: “The smell of urine from the rodents, along with all the dirt and disease that they carry, flows around the control room day and night.”
At another prison the floors on one of the wings were described as “breaking down”. The officer said: “Some areas, following considerable pressure, have been replaced — yet others are still very dangerous. Some have lifted so much they are like a ‘yawning donkey’. The stairs are a trip hazard”. The prison’s head of maintenance had to repair it temporarily with gaffer tape.
At another prison, the main gate was constantly breaking down, leaving staff resorting to standing on a wooden box to pull a lever and “pray”. Failing that, the gate staff hand-operate the electronic doors which do not work automatically.
Some prisons are commissioning their own inmates to take over maintenance contracts, the report found. At one prison they managed to save more than £330,000 by getting a team of inmates to do the repairs instead.
The names of the officers and the prisons where they work have been anonymised in order to protect them from disciplinary action.
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The POA said the conditions are so poor in British prisons that a German court refused to extradite a British man suspected of drug trafficking to the UK in 2023. There was a similar case in the Netherlands in 2019 when a court refused to send a suspected drug smuggler back to the UK because of concerns that prison conditions were inhumane.
The POA has blamed the dire state of the prison estate on the privatisation of maintenance work, which were fully privatised by Chris Grayling, the justice secretary in 2015.
Maintenance works for prisons in the north of England and in Wales were outsourced to Amey, the facilities management company, and to Carillion, the construction and facilities company, in the south. This was then replaced by a complex outsourcing structure managed by the Ministry of Justice.
The contracts are up for renewal later this year and the POA said it would be the “perfect opportunity” for the Labour government to “make good on its promise to oversee the biggest wave of insourcing for a generation”.
The pledge was made by Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, before the election but the Ministry of Justice has not yet revealed its intention.
A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that a quarter of prison places do not meet fire safety standards, equating to 23,000. It also found that the Prison Service’s backlog of maintenance works has doubled to £1.8 billion from £0.9 billion in the last four years.
The public-spending watchdog added that “HMPPS [ HM Prison and Probation Service] estimates it would cost £2.8 billon over the next five years to bring the whole estate into a ‘fair’ condition, more than double its current maintenance expenditure.”
Steve Gillan, general secretary of the POA said: “Privatised prison maintenance has been a costly, unmitigated disaster. It is more expensive than public sector provision and delivers a much poorer service. Privatised prison maintenance contracts are a classic case of a false economy.
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“Privatisation of prison maintenance has seen conditions deteriorate, with many in a state of squalor evidenced by a crumbling estate, rodent infestations and appalling conditions for staff and prisoners alike.
“As these contracts expire the government has the perfect opportunity to make good on its promise to oversee the biggest wave of insourcing for a generation. These contracts should be brought back in-house to improve quality, provide value for money for the taxpayer and end the privatisation rip off.”
The MoJ has been approached for comment.
