Bristol Prison deemed unsafe as 10 inmates die since 2019

The prison is overcrowded and rundown, inspectors found

A prison where nine inmates took their own lives and another was killed is "categorically failing" at keeping people safe.

A report on Bristol prison said it was one of the "most unsafe in the country".

The HM Chief Inspector of Prisons said Bristol was overcrowded, leading to "high levels of violence" and inmates in "squalid cells" for 22 hours a day.

The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.

The inspector said the cells were "cramped" and the isolation of inmates left them with "nothing meaningful to do".

"When we last inspected Bristol in 2019, we were so concerned about conditions in the prison that we issued an urgent notification to the then secretary of state," the report said.

The inspector added it was an "enormous disappointment to return to the jail and find that things had not improved".

"Unsurprisingly, this led to very high levels of violence, self-harm and drug-use," he added.

"Eight men had taken their own lives since the last inspection, another man did so immediately after the inspection, and a prisoner had been charged with murdering his cellmate."

The report added that levels of recorded violence were high, including "serious assaults" on both staff and prisoners.

Released homeless

Due to severe staff shortages, the prison was unable to deliver a proper regime for the number of men it held, which meant they spent far too long locked in their cells, according to the report.

With a particular shortage of health care staff, the report found insufficient provision for the number of prisoners, particularly those who were mentally unwell.

It stated that men waiting for transfer to a secure hospital were often held for lengthy periods in the segregation unit for want of more appropriate accommodation or care.

Work to prepare prisoners for release was "poorly coordinated" and "under-resourced", and a quarter were released homeless.

Many men had been in and out of Bristol prison many times, falling back into reoffending on release.

Mr Taylor continued: "Prisons have an important duty to protect the public by keeping those sentenced to custody securely behind bars for the duration of their sentence. But they also have a duty to those held within their walls.

They should, at the absolute minimum, be able to keep them safe, but they should also be supporting their rehabilitation so they leave prison not just willing, but able, to leave offending behind.

"Too many prisons at present are struggling to do that and Bristol was categorically failing."

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "This alarming report on Bristol prison encapsulates perfectly the problems caused when more and more people are thrown into overcrowded jails with insufficient staff to keep them safe and help them to move on from crime.

"Red flags were raised about Bristol four years ago, when the prison was made the subject of an urgent notification.

"For nothing to have changed in the years since is a damning indictment on a system that has been asked to do too much, with too little, for too long."

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