HMP Hewell

Reports

• HMIP2 Jun 2025

  Situated near Redditch in Worcestershire, HMP Hewell is a busy reception prison that continues to face significant challenges. With capacity for 1,094, at the time of our inspection it was holding just over 1,000 men. Most, some 63%, were on remand or awaiting sentence. A further 10% were licence recalls, having previously been released. This meant that the majority were experiencing comparatively short stays, contributing to a significant churn of prisoners. This was our first full inspection since our visit in 2022, and we evidenced some improvements, although they were limited. Disappointingly, of the 13 concerns we raised in 2022, only six had been fully addressed. We found that outcomes for prisoners remained ‘not sufficiently good’ in two of our healthy prison tests:

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• NPM-uk-imb-preparation-for-release1 Jan 2024

  Travel to the prison has become an increasingly significant issue, as the number of men from more distant areas has increased. This makes it all the more regrettable that the visitors’ reception centre is still unable to offer families basic refreshments. It is reported that the kitchen is to be refurbished and brought back into use, but after well over a year, the project has progressed no further than the installation of a new floor. Social video calls offer a limited alternative to conventional social visits. Each week, there are, in principal, 30 opportunities to spend an hour meeting approved family members via video calls, although, typically, only around two-thirds of these are used. As noted above, sessions for in-person visits were increased during the year by doubling the number of weekend slots. The lack of a child contact room appears, in the Board’s view, to be an altogether more solvable problem. There was, previously, a supervised but more private space where men could manage sensitive family situations, such as, for example, saying goodbye to a child being taken into care. However, this room later became required for another purpose. A plan to replace it is said to exist and the Board believes that the need for it is urgent. Although the introduction of in-cell telephony has greatly reduced the barriers to family contact, one important issue does persist. The entitlement to an initial phone call has been met by the provision of an ‘open’ PIN (the personal [...]

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• NPM-uk-imb-safety1 Jan 2024

  4.1 Reception and induction Population pressures and the churn of prisoners impacted negatively on provision of effective screening and assessment on arrival. For example, in a randomly selected four-week period in August, daily handover sheets showed a count of 757 arrivals and 750 departures, including two days in which over 100 men passed through reception. This was exacerbated by the number of men redirected to Hewell from courts, which would usually be served by other prisons. Late receptions, up to midnight on occasion, posed problems for timely screening and assessment, as the priority was to get men, who may have been in court and transit since early morning, fed and to cells. A ‘twilight’ staff shift was implemented, which meant that staff receiving late arrivals had not already worked a full day and volunteering for overtime. The churn of prisoners placed stress on HB2, where new prisoners are inducted, both in terms of maintaining the cleanliness and the decency of cells, replacing the kit for prisoners and being able to complete a comprehensive programme of induction. Staff focus their efforts on inducting prisoners who had not previously been held at Hewell. 4.2 Suicide and self-harm, deaths in custody There were 755 Incidents of self-harm in the reporting year compared with 1,033 in 2023-2024. Hewell now sits in the lower half of the comparative group (13th lowest out of the group of 31 comparator establishments). Self-harm incidents Out of the last 5,000 new [...]

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• NPM-uk-imb-respect1 Jan 2024

  5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Hewell took part in a national ‘clean and decent’ initiative and has sustained the commitment. The public areas of the prison, including the houseblocks, are clean and bright. A visitor from another prison commented that it was more like a hospital than a prison. There are still concerns about the state of individual cells, with the churn of prisoners and crowding making it difficult to maintain and improve them. We remain concerned by the inadequately designed accommodation, with cells intended for one person routinely being shared. Cells are poorly ventilated and can become too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. While the prison has managed to avoid any of its critical equipment breaking down this year, the longstanding anxiety over infrastructure should be alleviated in the coming months by work that has been funded and scheduled. Last year, we expressed concerns about maintenance. Boilers were ‘single points of failure’, air-handling units were in use well beyond their planned operational lifetime and lifts were out of use for long periods. This year, the situation is more positive: the boilers and control units have been replaced, the lifts fixed and the air-handling units are scheduled for replacement in 2026. There is also a plan to replace damaged flooring across the prison. Crowding often forces people who are not well matched to share cells, which can lead to conflict and significant discomfort. For those with specific [...]

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• NPM-uk-imb-purposeful-activity1 Jan 2024

  Essential information about the full range of learning opportunities at HMP Hewell has now been brought together in a single handbook. Its combination of clarity with comprehensiveness makes it a valuable resource. The opportunities provided have to be seen in the context of the needs of the Hewell population. These exemplify the churn characteristic of a local reception prison. A third of the population will typically move on within a month, two-thirds within three months. Only a quarter of the prison roll has been both convicted and sentenced, and are, therefore, able to discuss their remaining time in custody in a more complete and informed way. Nevertheless, an overall assessment is still carried out during induction. This process assigns each prisoner to one of seven pathways, helping to identify the activities that best match his needs. This takes place regardless of whether the individual has been convicted or is on remand. In many individual cases, the most fundamental need of all is reading. With around half of the prison typically at, or below, the level expected of a 9 to11 year old, attention in this area is an inescapable priority. The ambition to support individual tuition with varied informal opportunities is admirable. In this context, it is disappointing to see the reduced prominence of the literacy support that supplements the activity of the textiles workshop. The Shannon Trust charity is active across the prison. The work is done by a score or so of [...]

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• HMIP20 Mar 2023

  Hewell is a men’s category B reception prison serving the West Midlands that held 923 men at the time of our inspection, half of whom were unsentenced. When we last inspected in 2019, the prison was in a mess, with high levels of violence and drug use, very low staff morale and prisoners kept in unclean and unsanitary conditions. I am pleased to report that since the arrival of a charismatic and determined governor, the prison had made excellent progress and was now cleaner, more decent and safer. The governor had rightly focused on transforming the staff culture, working to improve the capability and confidence of staff and raise morale. He used the pandemic lockdown to reinvigorate the prison, creating a vison for the jail and developing his senior team. As a result, assaults on staff and between prisoners had reduced significantly and the prison felt safe and calm. This had been supported by the introduction of the targeted care pathway (TCP) unit that helped prisoners who were struggling on the main units, and the Oak unit for those who were suffering from more serious mental heath difficulties, many of whom were awaiting transfer to hospital. Both were led by impressive custody managers who had created a strong identity and purpose for each unit and were working successfully with prisoners who, in the past, would have been likely to have spent long periods of time in segregation or unsupported on the main wings. Senior leaders had invested time and resource in training and supporting custodial managers and supervisory officers and this meant that individual wings were competently led with improved responses to applications and complaints. Living conditions in the jail were also much better; the general environment was well-maintained and clean, and improvements had been made to cells, showers and serveries. At our last inspection and at our scrutiny visit in August 2020, inspectors highlighted failings in care of prisoners in their early days at Hewell, and disappointingly, this remained a concern. Not all men received a full induction and the regime on the wing holding new arrivals was very limited. We also remained concerned that leaders had not done enough to respond to our previous concerns about the support for those prisoners who are most at risk of self-harm or suicide, and some of the processes to protect the most vulnerable were weak. Prisoners at Hewell spent far too long in their cells, particularly those who were unemployed who were locked up for 23 hours a day. The provision of education, training and work was rated as inadequate by our Ofsted colleagues, who found that the activities on offer were often not suitable for this population nor did most work placements come with the accreditation that would help prisoners get work when released. Nearly two thirds of prisoners had low-level English and maths and yet there were only 40 places available in these subjects. The prison-wide reading strategy was flimsy and there will need to be greater commitment from the education provider and leaders in the jail to improve prisoners’ reading – this work cannot just be left to Shannon Trust mentors, however committed they might be. The prison did not improve its score in our rehabilitation and release planning healthy prison test which remained not sufficiently good. Public protection measures were lacking in some important areas, meaning there was not the coordinated planning for many high-risk prisoners held at the prison. Difficulties with booking visits was a source of frustration for prisoners and their families and inspectors never got through when they called the visit booking line. Overall, this was a positive inspection and the governor and his team have much to be proud of. In the next year there will need to be a focus in improving the education, work and training offer particularly for those prisoners with low

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• HMIP15 Sept 2020

  Scrutiny inspection of HMP Hewell (2020-09-15)

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• HMIP11 Aug 2020

  Scrutiny inspection of HMP Hewell (2020-08-11)

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