Section one Context Women’s prisons in England and Wales, like men’s prisons, also had issues with resettlement and had some gaps in providing accommodation on release. Too many women were released homeless or to very short-term accommodation, and none of the prisons inspected measured the sustainability of the accommodation into which prisoners were released. For example, at HMP Eastwood Park, almost half of prisoners discharged in the recent months prior to the inspection had been released either homeless or to very temporary or emergency accommodation. In February 2020, 10 of the 12 IMBs in women’s prisons carried out a joint resettlement survey. They found that nearly 60% of the women surveyed did not have settled accommodation on release, yet this overall finding did not seem to be reflected in figures provided by the prisons themselves.134 In September 2019, the death of a newborn baby at HMP & YOI Bronzefield gave rise to serious public concern. The mother was detained at the prison and gave birth alone in her cell. Ten reviews are due to take place or are already underway. These include two internal reviews by the prison and by Sodexo (the contractor), a joint investigation by HMPPS and HMP Bronzefield, an NHS clinical review, two police reviews, two social service reviews and the local Child Death Overview Panel and a future coroner’s report. Alongside these, the prisons minister Lucy Frazer commissioned the PPO to carry out an ongoing overarching investigation into the death, which will be made public. In a letter responding to the JCHR, she also outlined further actions, including expediting the ongoing review of mother and baby units in prisons to improve data collection on pregnancy in prison.135 There is no public data on the number of pregnancies, stillbirths or deaths of newborn babies in prison. Research by the health think tank the Nuffield Trust identified 56 prisoners in England who gave birth during their prison stay in 2017–18. Published in February 2020, the research found that six prisoners gave birth either in prison or on their way to hospital. Their research also found that nearly four in 10 hospital appointments made for prisoners are cancelled or missed, they had 24% fewer inpatient admissions and outpatient appointments than the general population and there are signs of lapses of care within prison for certain groups of prisoners.136 In Scotland, NPM members identified a number of human rights issues in prisons. Key issues identified included overcrowding, resulting in situations where two prisoners were sharing cells intended for one, and understaffing, resulting in long periods of time locked in cells (in some cases 22–23 hours per day) with inadequate access to exercise, education, employment or other rehabilitative activities. HMIPS also found inconsistencies in the administration, recording and handling of complaints, and a lack of trust in accountability systems among prisoners. Other human rights issues identified related to the isolation of foreign national prisoners, who were often not provided with appropriate translated materials about key processes in prison. 134 IMB, August 2020, Resettlement: A survey by Independent Monitoring Boards of women being released from prison, https://www.imb.org.uk/more-than-half-of-women-prisoners-have-no-settled-home-on-release-reveals-new-reportfrom-independent-prison-monitors/ [accessed 30/10/2020] 135 Lucy Frazer QC MP, October 2019, Letter RE: Information on the number of pregnant women in prison, https://old. parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/human-rights/correspondence/2019-20/191031%20Response%20from%20 Lucy%20Frazer%20QC%20MP%20on%20the%20tragic%20death%20of%20a%20baby%20at%20HMP%20Bronzefield. pdf [accessed 10/11/2020] 136 Nuffield Trust, February 2020, Locked out? Prisoners’ use of hospital care, https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/research/ locked-out-prisoners-use-of-hospital-care [accessed 24/08/2020] 43