High numbers of prisoners at London's Feltham prison are too scared to attend education classes and workshops in a jail also blighted by group attacks in showers and staff shortages, a watchdog has warned.
In a report on Tuesday, the Independent Monitoring Board for the west London prison says that "violence .. in classrooms and workshops” is making “a large number of prisoners .. reluctant to attend".
It also warns that the extensive use of "keep aparts" to separate rival gang members and others at risk of clashing are further hindering the ability to deliver successful rehabilitation work.
The report – which comes amid a wider overcrowding crisis in the country’s jails – also highlights serious problems in the juvenile wing of the prison, which houses inmates aged 15 and 18 including some of the capital’s most troubled young offenders.
It has seen "an increase in the use of improvised weapons, such as plugs in socks" and " a three-on-one assault with a weapon made of a screw attached to a pencil” and other attacks with liquids.
The watchdog reveals that one child was responsible for assaulting 38 staff members in seven months and warns that the prison is having to cope with other “extremely challenging” children including an increasing number “with complex mental health needs [that] cannot be met at Feltham.”
It adds that the danger rose at one point to such an extent that dogs had to be temporarily introduced in one unit to support staff fearful for their safety.
The report further discloses that “significant” numbers of children have been self-isolating amid concerns about safety and that staff had been trying to “manage 13 different groups” with the result that children were being kept “behind room doors for up to 23.5 hours per day.”
On the adult section of Feltham, which now houses inmates aged between 18 and 30, today’s report gives a similarly bleak assessment, despite what it says is the “extraordinary job” done by the governor and the depleted number of prison officers working at the jail.
The problems include “serious prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, many involving multiple assailants, and a number of which were carried out in the showers”. They included one “very serious shower assault”, further attacks and “unexplained injuries” sustained in the showers. Staff told the watchdog that “showers are dangerous for the boys”.
The report also warns of “high numbers of men refusing to attend education and/or workshops out of fear for their personal safety.”It adds: “Staff shortages were a major problem in the reporting year on both [adult and child] sides” with the “loss of experienced staff hampering the delivery of a rehabilitative regime.”
“The prison struggled to deliver the basic regime and time out of room was severely curtailed. Cancellation of activities was ongoing. Education and rehabilitative programmes are limited and often not appropriate.”
The report says that the Feltham A, the child wing of the prison, had 113 inmates, including significant numbers on remand as well as those already convicted of crimes, while Feltham B, the adult section, had 456.
