United Kingdom · Midlands · Rutland
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UK Local prison operated by HM Prison & Probation Service. Listed in the GOV.UK Find a prison directory.
Capacity
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Current population
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Occupancy
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Year opened
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Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 7 Jul 2026 · methodology
Operator
HM Prison & Probation ServicePopulation held
male
Opened
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Region
Midlands
Security level
Medium
Death-row facility
No
and well-being of his staff, and getting prisoners back into purposeful activity. Staff recruitment and retention remained the biggest challenge for Stocken, with staff had been extremely high, leaving some serious questions about the culture — UK IMB Annual Report (2024) — Safety: 4.1 Reception and induction The reception department continues to generally work well but, as with the rest of the establishment, has been under pressure due to the large number of men and property passing through the department. There are peer supporters in reception to help new arrivals understand the processes at HMP Stocken, particularly with regard to what happens in reception. Prisoners [...] Respect: 5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Accommodation Each of the eight wings has a primary purpose: • F is the induction wing • H is the behavioural Intervention wing • I wing is for drug intervention • K wing is for those who are neurodivergent • L is the opiate substitute treatment wing, where there is an integrated drug treatment system (IDTS) • M wing is for recovery/incentivised substance-free [...] Purposeful activity: Education People Plus are HMP Stocken’s current education provider under the Prison Education Framework (PEF). They currently employ 23 tutors and 5 admin staff. As well as functional skills (English and maths) they also deliver ESOL (reading and writing), Peer Mentoring, Employment and digital skills and PSD (family relationships, personal and interpersonal conflict, improving assertiveness and [...] Preparation for release: The offender management unit seems to have settled well into their new accommodation. They coped well with the short notice given in changing the early release criteria. Social visits have taken place throughout the reporting year. Visits are on Monday to Thursday afternoons and on Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons. The charity, Lincolnshire Action Trust, provides activities for the [...]
refreshing change to visit a prison that was approaching its pre-pandemic that had been going on for many months. Prisoners also struggled to get visits could see their families and friends more than once a month. These visits were
The acting governor came into post in September 2022 and since then had frustration at Stocken, particularly as the telephone system kept breaking down,
and well-being of his staff, and getting prisoners back into purposeful activity. Despite this, the governor had prioritised purposeful activity and it was a were moving peaceably around the prison to work, education or training. There were working. The prison was being badly let down by the education provider who was under and there were not enough teachers.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons completed a full inspection of HMP Stocken in January 2023; the published report is available on the HMIP website.
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
What the score is responding to:
This facility scores 13. The national average across 584 scored United Kingdom facilities is 4 — 9 points above national average.
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Accommodation Each of the eight wings has a primary purpose: • F is the induction wing • H is the behavioural Intervention wing • I wing is for drug intervention • K wing is for those who are neurodivergent • L is the opiate substitute treatment wing, where there is an integrated drug treatment system (IDTS) • M wing is for recovery/incentivised substance-free living • N (Newton) wing is for prisoners on the enhanced (top) level of the incentives scheme • O (Oakham) wing is for long-term prisoners The overall state of the accommodation has improved with the opening of the two newest wings. However, despite some repairs being carried out, the oldest wings are showing signs of their age. The Board was disappointed that, in light of the ageing prison population, no cells with disability access were included in Oakham wing, which was only opened last summer. The prison has four cells for disabled prisoners and two low-mobility cells (which cannot accommodate a hospital bed). There is a waiting list for these cells. The Board had been led to believe by the head of wellbeing that, with a population in excess of 1,000, as many as 50 such cells are needed. At the end of the reporting year, some of the showers on N wing were being repaired. These showers had not worked properly since the wing was built in 2018-2019. In February 2025, possibly due to a marked change in the weather, water/condensation was further damaging the ceiling and the walls of [...]
4.1 Reception and induction The reception department continues to generally work well but, as with the rest of the establishment, has been under pressure due to the large number of men and property passing through the department. There are peer supporters in reception to help new arrivals understand the processes at HMP Stocken, particularly with regard to what happens in reception. Prisoners have two private interviews, one in reception and one on the induction wing, and healthcare staff carry out a health screening to identify any immediate issues. As mentioned elsewhere in this report - and in our previous report - property on transfer continues to be an issue, if volumetric controls have not been applied. This can result in delays when there are not enough staff in reception to search all the property. This may mean that the prisoner may not be able to take all his property with him on to the wing. The excess property then needs to be stored in reception and screened at a later time. On occasion, men are arriving without any of their property, which causes problems for them. Induction mentors are employed in both reception and on F wing. The feedback from prisoners that the Board has received shows they are appreciated by the new prisoners arriving in Stocken. Prisoner induction takes place on F wing and is a two-week programme, starting on a Monday. All new arrivals remain on F wing while they complete their ‘passport’, which outlines their induction process. Not all [...]
Education People Plus are HMP Stocken’s current education provider under the Prison Education Framework (PEF). They currently employ 23 tutors and 5 admin staff. As well as functional skills (English and maths) they also deliver ESOL (reading and writing), Peer Mentoring, Employment and digital skills and PSD (family relationships, personal and interpersonal conflict, improving assertiveness and decision making. Budgets continue to get tighter and some tutor groups have had to be increased in size. However, there is a need to resolve an issue of culture and level of expectation within both the prisoners and tutors in order to improve outcomes. The Digital Education Platform (DEP) has been introduced to allow for one IT system to be used across all providers. This should offer an improved user experience for prisoners, teachers, and the supporting education team. The new system should allow for consistency as prisoners move through their journey in prisons, allowing them to access their learning content from any prison location. It should also allow for greater flexibility around the use of learning environments and the ways prisoners consume learning content. Library The library service has been a concern towards the end of the reporting year as the contract with Rutland County Council ended as they said they could no longer afford to run the service. The library is now provided by People Plus but there was a period of confusion over how the service would be provided. As an [...]
The offender management unit seems to have settled well into their new accommodation. They coped well with the short notice given in changing the early release criteria. Social visits have taken place throughout the reporting year. Visits are on Monday to Thursday afternoons and on Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons. The charity, Lincolnshire Action Trust, provides activities for the younger children in the visits’ hall. Social video calls are also offered, which can help maintain family contact, as many of the prisoners are a long way from home and HMP Stocken is in a rural location. However, some men whose families live a long way away say that social video calls are not always possible, due to not all prisoner’s family having the knowledge or means to make use of this facility. All cells on the wings have in-cell phones, which allow prisoners to call family and friends at more convenient times. The prison also runs family days (which bring together prisoners and their families outside of their statutory entitlement to social visits, usually in more informal settings), which are held once a month on a Tuesday. As in previous reports, we must repeat that HMP Stocken is not a resettlement prison. However, 140 prisoners were released direct from HMP Stocken in the last year, compared with 252 in the previous year. This figure includes those released under the Government’s early release scheme. The OMU, Lincolnshire Action Trust and the Department for Work and [...]
Stocken is a men’s category C training prison in Rutland that held 1,051 prisoners at the time of our inspection. Prisoners arrived at the prison from across England, including from as far afield as the south coast or Liverpool. The acting governor came into post in September 2022 and since then had established a new vision that focused on building the competence, resilience and well-being of his staff, and getting prisoners back into purposeful activity. Staff recruitment and retention remained the biggest challenge for Stocken, with shortages in every area from officers, operational support grades and teachers. Despite this, the governor had prioritised purposeful activity and it was a refreshing change to visit a prison that was approaching its pre-pandemic activity levels. Free-flow of prisoners had been reintroduced and up to 500 men were moving peaceably around the prison to work, education or training. There was also evening association on offer for enhanced prisoners and those who were working. The prison was being badly let down by the education provider who was under a notice to improve, but had nevertheless been awarded an extension on the contract. The curriculum on offer was not suitable for the prisoners at Stocken and there were not enough teachers. In recent months, turnover of education staff had been extremely high, leaving some serious questions about the culture and competence of the provider. The result was the succession of empty classrooms I saw when I walked around and prisoners on long waiting lists to get on to courses. The distance that many prisoners were held from home was a cause of much frustration at Stocken, particularly as the telephone system kept breaking down, including over Christmas. Engineers were finally due to come and fix a problem that had been going on for many months. Prisoners also struggled to get visits at weekends when there was a waiting list, meaning they were lucky if they could see their families and friends more than once a month. These visits were often cut back to an hour – not enough time for families who had travelled long distances.
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World Prisons. (2026). HMP Stocken. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-stocken
"HMP Stocken." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-stocken.
@misc{worldprisons-hmp-stocken,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {HMP Stocken},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-stocken},
urldate = {2026-07-21}
}