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His Majestyâs Prison is a Category C male Young Offenders Institution, located in the Thamesmead area of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, in south-east London, England. The Prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and is situated next to Belmarsh Prison and Thameside Prison.
An experienced and innovative leadership team and an improved staffing With improvements from poor to not sufficiently good in both our purposeful prison that holds a volatile and risky population. The jail retained our top rating of good for respect and a rating of not sufficiently good for safety. restricted regime which fed, rather than addressed, the cycle of violence and always get their entitlements and that the regime was sometimes restricted. Leaders will need to make sure that this does not become a regular occurrence, unable to coexist with men with whom they had conflict.
Visiting
Visits at HMP/YOI Isis are booked via the GOV.UK Prison Visits Booking service. Photo ID is required for all adult visitors.
Mailing
postcode-led placement and created a Peace spur for those who wished to
Practical info
activity and preparation for release tests, we were pleased to see progress in a restricted regime which fed, rather than addressed, the cycle of violence and the prison. These men were rewarded with more time out of cell and more always get their entitlements and that the regime was sometimes restricted. unable to coexist with men with whom they had conflict. While the regime on The result of these changes there was a better regime than we had seen at our last inspection, and the work and training offer had improved.
Known issues
restricted regime which fed, rather than addressed, the cycle of violence and violence, particularly assaults on staff. By the time of our inspection, these had violence remained too high. A further ‘peace’ wing was due to open shortly after
An experienced and innovative leadership team and an improved staffing
situation had led to improvements at this South East London, category C prison
that held 577 young men at the time of this inspection.
With improvements from poor to not sufficiently good in both our purposeful
activity and preparation for release tests, we were pleased to see progress in a
prison that holds a volatile and risky population. The jail retained our top rating
of good for respect and a rating of not sufficiently good for safety.
At our last inspection, men with different London gang affiliations were held on
different wings to prevent those in conflict from mixing. This had led to a highly
restricted regime which fed, rather than addressed, the cycle of violence and
retribution in which so many prisoners were trapped. The courageous governor
had decided to introduce the ‘Peace Strategy’ which ended automatic,
postcode-led placement and created a Peace spur for those who wished to
serve their sentences away from the conflict that had been such a hallmark of
the prison. These men were rewarded with more time out of cell and more
enrichment activities. Some men on the Peace spur told me that they did not
always get their entitlements and that the regime was sometimes restricted.
Leaders will need to make sure that this does not become a regular occurrence,
otherwise the benefits of behaving well will be undermined.
The prison had also created a ‘growth’ spur for those prisoners who were
unable to coexist with men with whom they had conflict. While the regime on
this spur was very restricted, a well-motivated staff team used interventions that
included the support of two older, life-sentenced prisoners from the Men of
Purpose initiative to help men to move to a main location.
In the months after this change, there had been a big increase in the rate of
violence, particularly assaults on staff. By the time of our inspection, these had
considerably reduced as prisoners begun to accept the change. Because they
were no longer necessarily located with their friends or fellow gang members, a
higher than usual proportion of prisoners said they were afraid and rates of
violence remained too high. A further ‘peace’ wing was due to open shortly after
the inspection as a further incentive to prisoners to behave well.
The result of these changes there was a better regime than we had seen at our
last inspection, and the work and training offer had improved. It was, however,
taking too long to allocate prisoners to activities, too many of which were only
part time. This led to many men being locked in their cells for up to 22 hours a
day and overall, time out of cell was not nearly good enough. Attendance at
education was disappointingly low in a jail where many of the young men had
underachieved at school.
The use of PAVA incapacitant spray was high and while use was proportionate
in most cases, in some footage inspectors viewed, it was clear that staff were
using it too readily.
The prison was cleaner than at our last inspection, but standards were not good
enough and leaders needed to do more to hold staff and cleaners to account for
the state on their wings.
1.1
Isis is a category C prison in south-east London. It opened in 2010 and
holds about 600 young men.
1.2
At our previous inspections of HMP/YOI Isis in 2018 and 2022, we
made the following judgements about outcomes for prisoners.
Figure 1: HMP/YOI Isis healthy prison outcomes in 2018 and 2022.
Good
Reasonably
good
Not sufficiently
good
Poor
Isis is a modern, category C prison in south-east London that held 595 young
men at the time of our inspection. There was a high turnover of prisoners with
an average of 80 arrivals each month, but in spite of this instability, the prison
retained a good atmosphere with generally positive relationships between
prisoners and staff. This was in part driven by some excellent work on equality
and diversity that sought both to understand and respond to the experiences of
prisoners, and to use data to make sure that there was fair and proportionate
treatment of different groups.
The energetic and well-liked governor was behind much of what was effective at
Isis; she knew her jail well, had advocated for the prison to return to its original
mission of housing young adults, and had personally driven through her priority
to improve understanding among staff of the needs of prisoners. In the areas
where she had paid most attention, good progress had been made, resulting in
our highest score for the healthy prison test of respect. Ongoing improvements
to the living conditions were taking place, although parts of the prison were not
clean enough. Elsewhere there were some disappointing findings: both
