Prison worker 'told to leave after raising concerns'

HMP Lowdham Grange transferred from private providers Serco to Sodexo in February 2023

A worker at a troubled prison was told to leave after he raised concerns about the establishment during an inspection, an inquest has heard.

Nottingham Coroner's Court is hearing an ongoing inquest for three inmates - David Richards, Anthony Binfield and Rolandas Karbauskas – who all died within the space of three weeks at HMP Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire in March 2023.

Matthew Brady had worked at HMP Lowdham Grange from 1997 until 2023, and was a custodial operations manager at the time of his departure.

On Wednesday, Mr Brady told the inquest he was told to "go home" by the prison's then deputy director, after he shared evidence with inspectors.

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons carried out an unannounced inspection of HMP Lowdham between 15 and 26 May 2023.

Prior to the inspection and before the deaths of the three inmates, Mr Brady sent an email to the former deputy director on 21 February, raising concerns about the shortage of staff and resources.

'Can't keep up'

At that point, the prison had only been under the control of private provider Sodexo for less than a week, after changing hands from Serco on 16 February.

When he sent the email to the former deputy director, Mr Brady had been asked to step in as an escort - required when a prisoner needed to visit hospital, for example.

The jury heard how staff were being redeployed to other areas of the prison in response to staff shortages.

In his email read to the court, Mr Brady said he was concerned staffing levels and resources were so stretched things were going to get "missed".

"At the minute we can't keep up with the workload that is flooding through from all areas," he wrote.

"I'm starting to pick up additional jobs that historically would have been done by [a former staff member] and cover for jobs that should have been done by PCOs [prison custody officers]," the email added.

He shared this email with a member of the inspection team months later.

The Category B jail is now run by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

The court heard the former deputy prison officer, who no longer works for Sodexo, was aggrieved by this.

"She said Sodexo didn't want people like me working for them. She said that I wasn't welcome to the contract any more and she said to get my stuff and go home," Mr Brady told the inquest.

The inquest heard Mr Brady had already decided to leave his position at HMP Lowdham at the end of February in any case and had been serving his notice period at the time of the inspection.

When asked by a representative of Sodexo whether he had raised his concerns with Serco, Mr Brady said he was "sure" he had, "either in writing or verbally".

The inquest continues.