Section one Context HMI Prisons found there were some improvements in prisoners’ relationships with staff and in health care. The key worker scheme, which was introduced as part of the Offender Management in Custody model in 2018, was having some positive impact, but the lack of staff enforcement of some basic rules was often still a problem. However, many IMBs found that the aims of the scheme were not being met in many prisons, with a significant decline in officer engagement with prisoners.123 Overcrowding persisted and living conditions in some prisons remained poor during the reporting period. In both HMP Brixton and HMP Forest Bank, for example, 60% of prisoners shared a cell designed for one.124 Some living conditions were unhygienic, with some sites affected by vermin, and overall prisoners continued to live in inadequate conditions even when issues had been raised at previous inspections. During an Independent Review of Progress (IRP) visit at HMP Exeter, for example, inspectors again found prisoners in cells without windows (as they had done during the full inspection) and identified one prisoner living in a dirty segregation cell which was not fit for purpose. However, some prisons had made improvements to living conditions. For example, at HMP Stocken, inspectors found that there was a prisoner-led audit to ensure decent living conditions.125 A number of IMBs, such as Lancaster Farms, Preston, Bure, Ranby and Buckley Hall, noted the lack of decency when two prisoners had to share a single cell: at HMP Bullingdon about 80% of single cells were ‘doubled’ in this way, and the Board there and at HMP Bure and HMP Preston considered that this was inhumane. In some cases, as at HMP Whatton and HMP Lancaster Farms, some prisoners were eating meals alongside unscreened toilets. The Board at HMP Brixton referred to the ‘cramped and undignified conditions’ for most men there ‘sharing small cells, with bunk beds within arm’s reach of a toilet shielded only by a flimsy curtain’.126 In 2019–20, HMI Prisons found processes for promoting equality and diversity remained underdeveloped or too recently implemented to demonstrate sustained improved outcomes in many prisons. The same findings were reported by IMBs.127 Outcomes around purposeful activity for prisoners remained poor, and few prisons showed signs of improvement. Most prisoners still spent too much time locked in their cells, with an average of only 13% of prisoners reporting they received the expected 10 hours out of their cell per day. Time out of cell was even more restricted at weekends. At HMP Leeds and HMYOI Feltham B, over 80% of prisoners surveyed told HMI Prisons that they spent 22 hours a day locked up. The situation was generally better in training prisons, but even there 123 IMB, September 2020, Independent Monitoring Boards National Annual Report, 2019-20 https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws. com/imb-prod-storage-1ocod6bqky0vo/uploads/2020/10/IMB-national-annual-report-201920-amended-FINAL-.pdf [accessed 30/10/2020] 124 HMI Prisons, October 2020, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons 2019-20 Annual Report, https://www. justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/10/HMI-Prisons_Annual-Report-and-Accounts2019-20-WEB.pdf [accessed 30/10/2020] 125 HMI Prisons, October 2020, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons 2019-20 Annual Report, https://www. justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/10/HMI-Prisons_Annual-Report-and-Accounts2019-20-WEB.pdf [accessed 30/10/2020] 126 IMB, September 2020, Independent Monitoring Boards National Annual Report, 2019-20 https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws. com/imb-prod-storage-1ocod6bqky0vo/uploads/2020/10/IMB-national-annual-report-201920-amended-FINAL-.pdf [accessed 30/10/2020] 127 IMB, September 2020, Independent Monitoring Boards National Annual Report, 2019-20 https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws. com/imb-prod-storage-1ocod6bqky0vo/uploads/2020/10/IMB-national-annual-report-201920-amended-FINAL-.pdf [accessed 30/10/2020] 41