Review finds some progress at Isle of Man Prison

The facility at Jurby in the north of the island was opened in 2008

A review of the Isle of Man Prison has found progress has been made with the management of vulnerable prisoners, but more still needs to be done to address other issues.

It follows an independent inspection into the facility last year by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, the second of its kind since it opened in 2008.

While support for vulnerable prisoners had improved, security procedures remained "disproportionate", an update to that review has found.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the findings were "encouraging".

Of the 13 concerns highlighted in the 2023 review, the prison had addressed nine, the update said.

In the previous report it was noted that "three self-inflicted deaths" had occurred at the facility since 2020.

However, the review said that there had been "considerable effort" to improve the care of at-risk prisoners.

Vulnerable individuals were now "well supported" and the "management of their risk was more proportionate and the inappropriate use of 'special' unfurnished cells in the segregation unit had ceased".

'No meaningful progress'

Good progress had also been made in providing support to prisoners to address offending behaviour with the introduction of a psychology team, as well as group-work programmes and one-to-one interventions.

But "more needed to be done" to improve conditions for new arrivals, and security procedures remained "disproportionate", with "excessive strip-searching" of prisoners, the review found.

"No meaningful progress" had been made to promote diversity and equality and, while most prisoners were employed, the majority of work roles did not provide "realistic work conditions or training" for future employment.

However, the number of hours two thirds of prisoners were now occupied for with a combination of education and work had risen from 13.5, which the prison had considered as full-time employment during the last inspection, to 20.

Initiatives were also planned to strengthen family ties, including the ability to attend parent evenings by video-link and a parenting skills course, the update said.