Exeter Prison 'needs to be safer to make community safer'

Exeter Prison has the highest rates of self-harm of any reception prison in England and Wales

A Devon prison has to be safer for inmates to ensure communities are safer, an inspector has said.

A published report into HMP Exeter about an inspection last November confirmed it had the worst rates of self-harm in England and Wales.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said there was Prison Service complacency over "shocking standards".

The Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab, accepted the situation was "completely unacceptable".

'Potential greater risk'

As well as high self-harm rates, there had been 10 self-inflicted deaths over four years, the inspection found.

It also identified significant staffing issues and lack of stable leadership because of a high turnover in governors and senior managers.

The inspection resulted in Exeter being the first male prison to have urgent notifications issued by the prison inspectorate in consecutive inspections.

Mr Taylor said the facility was a reception prison, with men arriving often being newly sentenced or remanded in custody,

He said: "The complacency with which such shocking standards seems to have been viewed by the Prison Service is extraordinary."

He also told BBC Radio Devon: "If a prison like Exeter isn't doing its job properly, then that puts potentially the public in Devon at a greater risk of prisoners who have not been rehabilitated, who haven't been given the support they need.

"They'll go back to offending and cause some of the chaos that they have done in their local communities."

"So, if we want safer communities. Exeter has to be a safer prison."

Mr Taylor said a team was due to return to Exeter again this year and he expected to see a significant improvement.