Section Three The second year – activities and key issues by type of detention Many of the concerns raised by HMIP were echoed by Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs). There is one board for every prison in England and Wales, and board members make regular, often weekly, visits to the prison. In 2010–11, boards made more than 46,000 visits and each board published its own annual report. IMBs across England and Wales reported concerns about: • the increase in the number of deaths in custody from natural causes and, linked to this, the lack of progress on the care and management of older prisoners • overcrowding, which has resulted in prisoners being transferred from London prisons to other establishments, making family contact and effective rehabilitation work more difficult • young adults aged 18–21 being held throughout the prison estate without specific provision for them • the number of foreign national prisoners held in prisons beyond their sentence expiry date and the impact of this continued detention on their mental health • the number of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences for public protection. These sentences are imposed on those who have committed specified offences and who are deemed to pose a serious risk of serious harm in the future. Offenders are given a ‘tariff’, which is the minimum period of imprisonment, but may only be released following expiration of the tariff if they can show the parole board that they have reduced their risk to the public. IMBs regularly meet prisoners whose tariff has expired but who are unable to access the programmes required for them to be considered for parole. Similarly to HMIP, IMBs have welcomed the fall in the number of under-18s in prison. They too recognise that this brings its own challenges: young people will be held further from home, and this has implications for how often families visit. IMBs have other concerns in relation to young people in custody, including the lack of post-custody accommodation for those who are not able to return home; the lack of social workers in prisons; and the limited number of alcohol and drug interventions that are appropriate to the age group. IMBs too are concerned about the strip-searching of young people, believing that the inherent decency of stripsearching must be questioned, no matter how carefully the search is executed. In 2010, the National Council for Independent Monitoring Boards published a report on the lack of in-cell sanitation in prisons in England and Wales.15 The report noted that 2,000 cells across 10 prisons lack in-cell sanitation. While electronic unlocking systems exist in these prisons, there is often excessive queuing and limited access, and the unlocking systems often break down. Prisoners resort to using buckets in their cells at night, which means that slopping out continues, despite the formal ending of this practice 14 years ago. IMBs were particularly concerned about older prisoners and those with disabilities who lived in such conditions. They found the lack of in-cell sanitation to be unacceptable and encouraged the government to address this problem and to ensure that prisoners are treated humanely. 15 National Council for Independent Monitoring Boards, ‘Slopping Out?’ A report on the lack of in-cell sanitation in Her Majesty’s Prisons in England and Wales (August 2010). 21