Third of inmates released became homeless - report

The HM chief inspector of prisons said the report was "particularly disappointing"

Almost a third of men released from Peterborough prison in the past year were made homeless due to insufficient housing support, a "worrying" inspection report found.

HMP Peterborough was inspected over a 10-day period at the start of the year.

The report said a housing adviser failed to visit the site for more than a year and 333 prisoners were released homeless in the year to January.

The prison said it was working on an action plan to improve.

"This was a worrying inspection," said HM chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor.

"It is particularly disappointing that Peterborough, which has historically been one of the better resettlement prisons in the country, has suffered."

'No address to go to'

The report found that Peterborough, one of the UK's largest reception jails taking new inmates, released about 1,200 men in the past year and received about 700, who were recalled to prison for violating the terms of their community supervision.

It said "despite them having no address to go to, managers had been obliged to release some men 18 days early under the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme, only for some to return to prison before even their original release date had passed".

Interventions Alliance was the commissioned rehabilitative services (CRS) provider responsible for delivering housing support.

"Despite receiving about 40 referrals every month, they were only profiled to provide 0.8 staff and, in reality, there had been no regular staff on site for over a year, other than occasional visits from a manager to triage the most critical cases," the report said.

Interventions Alliance's director of resettlement, Rupert Nesbitt-Day, said: "Unfortunately our service at HMP Peterborough at the time of this inspection was impacted by local recruitment challenges and securing timely vetting."

He said it had since appointed a "suitably qualified dedicated accommodation support officer", who would be working full-time.

Access to drugs

Meanwhile, a third of inmates told a survey it was "easy to access illicit substances", with 16% of people tested at random saying they had "developed a drug problem since being at the prison".

The category B jail, operated by Sodexo, was also said to be facing staffing challenges, with a third of officers "routinely unavailable for duty" and morale "low".

The deployment of senior staff to support other Sodexo prisons during the previous 18 months was also said to have "impacted negatively".

The prison said it "fully acknowledged" some areas required improvement

HMP Peterborough said it would "take on board" the chief inspector's recommendations.

"Whilst we are pleased that the report recognises the hard work undertaken by our team to make the prison considerably safer, we fully acknowledge that some other areas, such as purposeful activity, require improvement," a spokesman said.

"Since the inspection, we have been working on an action plan that builds on progress to date and which will help us address these issues."