HMP Cookham Wood

Reports

• HMIP9 Apr 2024

  1.1 HMYOI Cookham Wood is a young offender facility in Kent which can hold 120 boys between the ages of 15 and 18. 1.2 On 21 March 2024, three weeks before this independent review of progress, HMPPS announced that children would be moved out of Cookham Wood and the site would reopen as an adult prison. The primary reasons given for this announcement were that improvements could not be delivered at the scale required within an acceptable timeframe, and the need to increase capacity in the adult estate: ‘In a bid to boost prison capacity the establishment will operate as an adult male prison as early as the summer.’ Press release announcing the closure: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/young-offenders-institution-to-be- repurposed 1.3 During this IRP it was clear that leaders, including the governor, were unaware of this decision until shortly before it was made. Capital investment, including refurbishing residential units and installing new classrooms, was in progress or had been completed very recently. In addition new staff including teachers and dozens of youth justice workers had just started or were in training. At the time of our visit there was little clarity about the future of the site and the staff had been told nothing about what they would do after the closure. Many of the staff that we spoke to were doing their best to care for children during this period of uncertainty. 1.4 Those children who were not due to be released before the end of May had started to be moved out of the establishment. All but two, who were due to be transferred to the secure training centre (STC), were expected to be moved to other young offender institutions (YOIs). In addition, 20 18-year-olds were being moved to adult prisons. At the time of the IRP, the population stood at just 33. 1.5 This review visit followed up on the concerns we raised at our last inspection of HMYOI Cookham Wood in 2023. What we found at our last inspection 1.6 At our previous inspections of HMYOI Cookham Wood in 2021 and 2023, we made the following judgements about outcomes for children. Report of an independent review of progress at HMYOI Cookham Wood Figure 1: HMYOI Cookham Wood healthy establishment outcomes in 2021 and 2023 1.7 At the previous inspection, we found the site in crisis after six years of decline. A complete breakdown of behaviour management had led to the escalation of poor behaviour to the point where there was widespread weapon making and nearly a quarter of children reported feeling unsafe. Solitary confinement of children had become normalised at the establishment. Over a quarter of the population was completely segregated from the main population and some of these children did not come out of their cells for days at a time. The

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• HMIP4 Apr 2023

  HMYOI Cookham Wood is a young offender facility in Kent capable of holding 120 boys between the ages of 15 and 17, although some 18-year-olds are currently being retained due to population pressures in the adult estate. An institution dating from the 1970s, the accommodation blocks have been largely rebuilt in recent years, with new wings opened in 2014. At the time of this inspection the institution was only two-thirds full, with the 77 boys ranging from those on remand to some serving long, indeterminate sentences, including life. It follows that these boys are among the most vulnerable and challenging currently subject to the criminal justice system in England. The findings of this inspection were extremely concerning, with evidence indicating outcomes for young people were poor in our tests of safety and

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• HMI Prisons Urgent Notification15 Feb 2023

  Urgent Notification: children spending 23+ hours per day in cell; education provision close to non-existent; widespread frustration leading to violence.

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• HMIP25 Apr 2022

  1.1 Cookham Wood in Kent is a young offender institution holding boys between the ages of 15 and 18. The institution can hold up to 188, although because of reductions in the population of children in custody during the COVID-19 pandemic, at the time of this independent review of progress just over 80 children were held. 1.2 At our previous inspections of HMYOI Cookham Wood in 2019 and 2021, we made the following judgements about outcomes for children. Figure 1: HMP YOI Cookham Wood healthy prison outcomes in 2019 and 2021 Good Reasonably good Not sufficiently good Poor

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• NPM-uk-imb-safety1 Jan 2022

  4.1 Reception and induction Board members have seen Reception and Induction officers at Cookham Wood being friendly, reassuring and perceptive. New boys also meet with Healthcare professionals to develop their care plans and to help them write “formulations” explaining their hopes and concerns. Nonetheless, many boys are scared and confused on arrival, wary of trusting new people and joining new groups. This makes them vulnerable to the few boys (often gang affiliated) who are actively anti-social – willing and able to use violence to assert themselves. All boys come with a risk assessment, but mixing them in an uncertain environment will always carry risks. In December, eight of the nine boys on the induction landing were involved in a nasty brawl with each other. For this reason, new boys are asked to say who they would feel unsafe with, such as individuals known to them or members of particular gangs. Keep Apart directions are drawn up, which the boys carry with them onto their main landing. This sets an unfortunate pattern of keeping boys safe by keeping them apart, which continues and grows as their sentence progresses. This risk-averse strategy, while designed to keep boys safe, greatly reduces their opportunities to develop their social awareness and their ability to understand and trust others. There is no mention of forming new, healthy friendships or getting to know new groups in the boys’ induction pack. On paper, there is a very full induction programme – a [...]

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• NPM-uk-imb-respect1 Jan 2022

  5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Cookham’s Residential Unit was purpose-built and state of the art when it was opened in 2014. It has six landings, each with a wide communal area for boys to associate and dine together. The boys’ cells each have a phone (to ring family) and a shower, and each boy has a laptop (intranet access only). This year, because of restrictions on time out of cell, the landing communal areas have been sadly under-used. There is a landing refurbishment programme but progress on implementing it has been very slow. So far, only two landings have been refurbished, with one landing chained shut for months, awaiting Gov Facility Services Ltd (GFSL) to start the work. Of particular concern to the IMB was the length of time eight cells on the Cedar resettlement unit have been out of action pending major repairs. The Cedar unit, which prepares boys for release, was described by HMIP in April as “an oasis of calm and effective behaviour management” in Cookham Wood. It provides a respectful, open regime with lots of time out of room, excellent personal support from a dedicated officer team, and an outstanding range of ROTL (release on temporary license) opportunities for its boys. IMB members find the Cedar unit a joy to visit. With its cells repaired and refurbished, it could accommodate 17 boys. However, throughout this year, it has only been able to accommodate eight or nine. In April, HMIP found that the landings were dirty and that there were delays in [...]

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• HMIP9 Aug 2021

  Providing relatively new accommodation, Cookham Wood in Kent is a well- established young offender institution (YOI) that has been largely redeveloped in recent years. The institution can hold up to 188 boys between the ages of 15 and 18, but due to reductions in the population of children in custody during the COVID-19 pandemic, at the time of our inspection there were just 87 boys in residence. Coming from the greater part of south and south-east England, these boys had varying status, ranging from those recently remanded to those serving indeterminate sentences for the most serious of offences. The risks associated with the detention of such young people mean that this is the latest in a series of annual inspections, although there was some interruption during the pandemic. When we last fully inspected Cookham Wood in 2019, we were concerned to find that outcomes for children were not sufficiently good against any of our four tests of a healthy institution. At this inspection we found they had not improved and had in fact worsened in our purposeful activity test, where outcomes were now poor. For an institution providing services to children this inability to address failings was completely unacceptable. Admittedly the restrictions imposed by the pandemic had not helped, but it was hard to understand why the institution had not been more ambitious in, for example, providing a better regime, perhaps adopting an approach that mirrored more closely that adopted for children in the community or at other YOIs. As it was, we found parts of the prison where more than half of children were locked in cell during the school day and typically spent as little as four hours a day out of cell, and just two hours at weekends. We found low morale among staff, low standards, low expectations and a lack of energy and creativity that could engage and motivate children to use their time at Cookham Wood usefully, despite holding only half the young people it was resourced to hold. The response to difficulties found between children was invariably limited to keeping them apart, placing further restrictions on the regime. Leaders needed to find ways to move beyond this reactive and limiting approach, starting with energetic and motivational engagement with children, as well as the clear demarcation and enforcement of standards. The key to this is good local leadership and national leadership through HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). Since we last inspected a new governor and a further six senior managers had been appointed. The governor was beginning to implement a business plan which prioritised reducing violence, the creation of communities and investing in staff. These priorities seemed reasonable, although it was too early to discern progress and we were not convinced that staff were fully aware or engaged with this vision. Their engagement was not, however, optional. Staff needed clarity about what was expected of them and leaders needed to show greater rigour in ensuring policies were understood and delivered. Poor practice and behaviour needed to be challenged consistently, and staff needed to make sure basic standards were maintained. We encourage close scrutiny by HMPPS, and the provision of support to assist the new governor of Cookham Wood. There needs to be a shared and collective determination that establishes how and when improvements will be made. Charlie Taylor HM Chief Inspector of Prisons September 2021

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• HMIP9 Sept 2019

  Full inspection of HMYOI Cookham Wood (2019-09-09)

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