HMP Holme House –Very Serious Drugs Problems

36 Recommendations from the last inspection had not been achieved and 10 only partly achieved.

HMP Holme House, near Stockton on Tees, , a local prison holding nearly 1,200 adult men had a “very serious” drugs problem, with nearly 60% of prisoners saying it was easy to get hold of drugs. A quarter of prisoners had acquired a drug problem in the jail. Spice, the synthetic cannabis, was a particular problem. “The prison was not as safe as it had been and at the heart of our concerns was a very serious problem with drugs,” Mr Clarke said. “The threat to the well-being of individuals was manifest and rarely have we seen so many serious and repeated incidents of prisoners under the influence of clearly harmful substances.  Despite this, the prison did not have an integrated or effective supply reduction strategy in place.  Stopping drugs from entering the prison was the prison’s main priority in our view.” Despite the high caseloads, though, support for drug and alcohol-addicted prisoners was “very good.”

HMP Holme House was inspected in July 2017, at a time of significant change. It was part of a group of prisons designated as “reform prisons” and it was intended that Holme House would lose its local prison function and become a category C training prison. The full impact of changes was emerging but had yet to be fully realised. Holme House was last inspected in late 2013 and inspectors found a significant deterioration in outcomes across most assessments. The prison was not as safe as it had been and at the heart of concerns was the very serious problem with drugs. “Mandatory testing suggested a positive rate within the prison of 10.45%, which was bad enough, but this rose to nearer 36% when synthetic cannabinoids or new psychoactive substances (NPS) were included. Nearly 60% of prisoners thought it was easy to get drugs in the prison,” Mr Clarke said. Violence had risen since 2013 but some good work had been done to try to reduce it, though this needed to progress with greater urgency. Inspectors were concerned that there had been six self-inflicted deaths since 2013 but not all the recommendations made following the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s (PPO) investigations had been implemented effectively.

Holme House, a modern prison, had relatively clean internal communal areas, though too many cells were poorly equipped and often in an unhygienic condition, or were overcrowded. Many prisoners had difficulty in accessing the basics of daily living – including bedding, clean clothes and cleaning materials – although the recent introduction of in-cell telephones was a step forward in supporting family ties.  Most prisoners felt respected by staff but relationships were often strained and consultation was limited. The identification of and support offered to minority groups were reasonable overall, but there was evidence of worse outcomes for black and minority ethnic prisoners. This needed to be understood and addressed. Fully employed prisoners could expect to be out of their cells for about 9.5 hours a day, but time out of cell was much worse for those without employment, with 35% of prisoners locked in their cells during the day. Regular regime restrictions, in large part due to staff dealing with incidents, were causing significant disruption.

Inspectors made 62 recommendations.

Peter Clarke said: “Holme House is an ambitious and aspirational prison with plans to deliver a significant programme of change. Our commentary in no way seeks to undermine those ambitions, but there was a significant gap between aspiration and the day-to-day reality. This inspection was disappointing and demonstrated a need for greater attention to the basic requirements of safety, decency and prisoner rehabilitation.”

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