Section one Context Overall, NPM members judged prison conditions in England and Wales to be poor, with many prisoners being kept in dirty and overcrowded facilities. The amount of time that prisoners remained in cells was again considered to be unacceptable by HMI Prisons. This has been a recurring concern in HMI Prisons reports over many years. In only a third of the adult male prisons inspected was purposeful activity judged to be good or reasonably good. IMBs welcomed the staffing increases but noted that the number and proportion of new and inexperienced staff had implications for safety and equitable treatment of prisoners. In many cases access to time out of cell, education and work continued to be restricted. Boards also raised serious concerns about the use of segregation units to deal with prisoners with severe mental health conditions, who could not be transferred because of the chronic shortage of appropriate specialist mental health services, and who, in some cases, spent unacceptably long periods in solitary confinement. The disturbing rise in levels of self-harm incidents and assaults continued, with a further year of record highs. The number of self-harm incidents was 57,968 for the year, up 24% from the previous 12 months. There were 34,425 recorded incidents of assault, an increase of 11% from the previous year. Of these incidents, 11% were classified as serious.54 There were 317 deaths in prison custody in the year, up 18 from the previous year. Of these, 87 deaths were self-inflicted, an increase of 14 from the previous year.55 It was of concern that HMI Prisons found that, as in the previous two years, recommendations made by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) following a death had not been adequately addressed in about a third of prisons inspected. There was an overall decline in safety, purposeful activity and respect outcomes compared with the previous inspection scores for some men’s prisons in England and Wales.56 Levels of violence had increased in more than half of the prisons inspected by HMI Prisons. Reports on HMPs Exeter, Birmingham and Bedford, in particular, highlighted the urgent need for improvement, and resulted in Urgent Notifications being issued. Indeed, category B and C men’s prisons – holding the majority of prisoners – were of most concern. Of the 28 local and training prisons inspected during the year, 22 were judged to be poor or not sufficiently good in regard to safety.57 The significant deterioration in conditions and regimes, the increasing use of NPS and rising self-harm and violence in local and training prisons was also highlighted by the IMB.58 54 Ministry of Justice, July 2019, Safety in Custody quarterly: update to March 2019, https://www.gov.uk/government/ statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-march-2019 [accessed 18/10/19] 55 Ministry of Justice, April 2019, Safety in Custody Statistics, England and Wales: Deaths in Prison Custody to March 2019; Assaults and Self-harm to December 2018, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/797074/safety-custody-bulletin-q4-2018.pdf [accessed 18/10/19] 56 For all ‘healthy prison assessments’ carried out by HMI Prisons, more scores remained ‘unchanged’ from previous inspections than declined or improved. 57 HM Inspectorate of Prisons, July 2019, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales Annual report 2018-19, https:// assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/814689/hmip-annualreport-2018-19.pdf [accessed 18/10/19]. 58 Independent Monitoring Boards, June 2019, Annual Report, https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/imb-prod-storage1ocod6bqky0vo/uploads/2019/06/IMB-NATIONAL-ANNUAL-REPORT-PUBL-5-JUNE-2019.pdf [accessed 18/10/19]; Introducing the use of PAVA spray in prisons, October 2018, https://prisonjobs.blog.gov.uk/2018/10/09/introducing-theuse-of-pava-spray-in-prisons/ [accessed 05/12/19] 25