Frail prisoner's care not at expected level - report

Robert Stephens died at HMP The Verne in May 2021

The way a prisoner was cared for in the last weeks of his life was "not equivalent" to what he could have expected in the community, an investigation has found.

Robert Stephens was 83 when he died at HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset, in May 2021 from bilateral bronchopneumonia.

He was jailed for 12 years for sex offences in January 2018 and was initially sent to HMP Winchester, where he had a number of seizures and falls. He was moved to The Verne in June 2019.

A Prison Service spokesperson said "significant improvements" have since been made at prison since Stephens' death.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) found Stephens contracted Covid-19 in February 2021 and was admitted to hospital. On his return to prison, he received supplementary oxygen for 15 hours a day.

On being admitted to hospital again in April 2021, a consultant told prison staff Stephens was "severely frail" and was in "the last few months of his life".

He was discharged in May and died in prison 23 days later.

The PPO found that staff "should have pursued a move to a more suitable location" than his prison dormitory before his health "deteriorated to such an extent that he was too ill and frail to be moved".

It also found that communication between prison and health staff was "at times poor" and that his needs would have been better met in a prison with 24-hour healthcare.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: "We have made significant improvements at HMP The Verne since Mr Stephen's death and have implemented all of the Ombudsman's recommendations.

"This includes strengthening staff training and improving processes around the treatment of ill prisoners."