Is Change Happening at Wandsworth Prison?
- leanlamb0
- May 18
- 6 min read
Twelve months ago, in May 2024, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, said that he had never encountered such despair as he witnessed in Wandsworth. The Governor at the time, Katie Price, resigned and the Government made a commitment to invest £100m to improve Wandsworth.
On 7 May 2025 over 250 people attended a public meeting at St Anne’s Church in Wandsworth to hear what has changed. They were therefore very disappointed that the new Governor, Andy Davy, pulled out of the meeting the day before, under instruction from his bosses.
While some things in Wandsworth have improved, the evidence from the meeting was that lots more still needs to be done. This isn’t all about waiting for expensive refurbishment programmes. The food isn’t good enough and property and clothing go missing.
“People who work in prisons need to be held accountable” (ex-prisoner)
Several participants highlighted the lack of accountability of those who run our prisons (the Governor’s absence was given as an example). The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, Adrian Usher, told us there was a need for better leadership, with a willingness to reflect and learn and that there are still too many deaths in Wandsworth. Natasha Porter, the Chief Executive of Unlocked Graduates, told us that recruitment and training of prison officers is inadequate and we all have a responsibility to value and respect the role of prison officers if we want to attract and retain good people.
How is Wandsworth today?
Because we were unable to hear from the Governor, Liz Bridge, WPIC spokesperson and former chaplain, described what we know about how the prison has changed. The Governor had invited members of WPIC into the prison so that we could see for ourselves that K wing is closed for refurbishment (meaning there is a better ratio of officers to men), the prison is cleaner, especially the yards and gutters (we saw only one rat), men now get two sets of kit on arrival, there is less violence, fewer prisoners self-harm and Trinity wings feel calmer and safer. However the residential hospital wing was in a very poor state, the new clinic was still not open (three years after its original completion date) and there are still lots of men with nothing to do except to take drugs. Conditions in the prison are better than the Channel 5 programme a few days’ before the meeting suggested, but it is still not a civilised place. While many officers are decent and kind there are still examples of callous and rude behaviour to visitors as well as prisoners
“Plain truth is our strongest weapon” – Liz Bridge
Liz invited members of the audience to describe their experiences of conditions in Wandsworth.
One ex-prisoner said he had been locked up for 23 hours on the hottest day of the year and that “my tours in Northern Ireland were a walk in the park compared with Wandsworth Prison . . . the bar was so low it would be a surprise of it hadn’t improved”. Another said that Wormwood Scrubs was 5-star compared with Wandsworth.
Wandsworth is an old prison, with no privacy or dignity and not enough staff. It is as bad as it was 30 years ago and will never change. The conditions make people angry and more likely to reoffend.
A mum said that the Governor was lying when he told WPIC that most men had 4-5 hours a day out of their cells as her son is routinely locked up for 24 hours and never has more than one hour a day out of his cell. She also said that phones in cells don’t work
Food is not good enough. The prison is prepared to spend £22k to refurbish a shower but spends only just over £3 per day on food for each prisoner.
There have been issues in some prisons with failures to answer the safer custody hotline, in one case staff did not pick up messages left by families desperately worried about their loved ones. We need a duty of candour and a culture of reflective leadership, willing to admit and learn from mistakes
Should Wandsworth be closed down?
Some people felt it was too late to change Wandsworth and it should be knocked down and that conditions there are so bad it should be closed immediately. Given the pressure on prison places it is very unlikely that Wandsworth will be closed any time soon so we have to continue to try to make it a humane and decent place where basic standards are met.
It was also argued that just because Wandsworth is an old prison doesn’t mean it should be closed. One ex-prisoner said the best prison he had been in was 300 years old and that “it’s not the building, it’s the leadership.” He said the previous Governor at Wandsworth, Katie Price, hardly ever walked the wings.
“Outrage is what is lacking” Adrian Usher, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman
Adrian Usher described his work as Prisons and Probation Ombudsman which includes investigating deaths in prisons and identifying the root causes. He said that Wandsworth has a high number of complaints and too many self-inflicted deaths. The number of self-inflicted deaths in prisons is proportionally 10 times more than in the general population. Over the past two years there were 3 self-inflicted deaths per 1000 prisoners, across all prisons. In Wandsworth there were 11.
Adrian spoke about the inadequate risk assessments carried out for vulnerable prisoners. Skilled staff are needed to carry out risk assessments but training is “woeful and in some cases totally absent.” In a prison such as Wandsworth, which has a large turnover and can receive 20-30 new prisoners every day, it is a challenge to carry out proper risk assessments. He described how prisoners were delivered to a prison he had investigated all together, only once a day. This made it more difficult for the prison staff to give enough time to each prisoner for a proper risk assessment. The reason for transporting prisoners only once a day was to reduce the costs of transport.
Adrian argued that contact between prisoners and their families is very important to help reduce reoffending. It is not right that prisoners are charged by the minute for phone calls when no one else is. He has raised this with the Prisons Minister, James Timpson.
He agreed that lost property is a major issue, forming 30% of the complaints he receives. Prisons still record property on paper. Prison officers could wear body cams when clearing out cells but are reluctant to do so. The Ombudsman has recently made recommendations about how prisons handle property.
“The public see prison officers as stupid, violent and corrupt” Natasha Porter, Chief Executive of Unlocked Graduates
Natasha described how central well trained, adequately supported prison officers are in any attempt to transform outcomes for Wandsworth and prisoners more broadly. She explained the premise of the Unlocked Graduates programme and compared this with the recruitment and training of most prison officers. No qualifications are needed and training is only 6 – 10 weeks, far less than professions such as teachers and social workers. Training for prison officers does not match the level of support they need to give to do their jobs properly. Prison officers who “carry their power carefully” get better outcomes. There also needs to be more local control over recruitment and training which is currently all done centrally within HMPPS.
Surveys show that the public view prison officers as “stupid, violent, corrupt.” During the Covid pandemic, prison officers were not classed as key workers although they had to go into work. Natasha urged everyone to tell the positive stories about prison officers who care and make a difference and to encourage good people to become prison officers. That will begin to turn the tide.
What can you do?
Following a fantastic performance by spoken word performer and former Wandsworth prisoner, Errol McGlashan, WPIC Convenor Gillian Ashmore closed the meeting with a call to action:
Join the Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign by signing up on our website to receive our newsletters
Follow us on X/Twitter and repost our tweets
If you want to get more involved, come to our regular meetings. Email us to find out the details of our next meeting.
Lobby your MP
Tell people you meet about the conditions in Wandsworth Prison and challenge the stereotype that prison is a holiday camp
If you run a local group ask Liz Bridge to come and speak about Wandsworth
Educate yourself about prison conditions. Inside Time is full of information about prisons. It’s free to subscribe online and you can search for articles about Wandsworth.
Donate to WPIC via the home page on our website. But please be aware that we are not a charity and have no formal status.
