WPIC Newsletter August 2025

Come to our next meeting and get involved

If you want to get more involved in the Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign come to our next meeting on Saturday 18 October, 10am-1pm in the Wandsworth Quaker Meeting Meeting House, 59 Wandsworth High Street, SW18 2PT.

Our second visit to Wandsworth Prison

The Governor of Wandsworth Prison, Andy Davy (AD), invited WPIC for a second visit to Wandsworth Prison on 22 July, following our first visit in February 2025.

What did Liz think?

This was the first time that Liz Bridge, former chaplain, and one of the founders of WPIC,  had seen the inside of the prison since she was excluded in 2023. Her view, a year and a half later, was that the prison is cleaner and that there is a more positive atmosphere than when she was last there.

Our overall impressions are below.

Improvements

• The improved cleanliness we saw on our last visit seems to be embedded

• Generally, there were no unpleasant smells although there were still occasional whiffs of cannabis 

•  A positive atmosphere – most prisoners seemed relaxed and we heard very few complaints

• The new Leavers Lounge – we hope that funding for this unit will continue as it is doing a good job for those leaving prison, including the unsentenced

• More information has been translated into other languages on kiosks and in the health centre and there are more foreign language books in the library

• Addison in-patient cells have been refurbished

• Improvements to some showers

• Reduction in drones carrying drugs, although this remains a major concern

•  New health centre is now open 

• Although levels of violence have gone up in recent months they are still below those of comparable prisons. The number of prisoners who self-harm has gone down 

• Full-time well-being lead has been recruited to support staff

Promising Signs 

• New cook is committed to improving the quality of the food. There will be a new nutrition framework for all prisons next year

• Further improvements due to take place in Trinity wings, including the new Scandi-style wing

• Improvements in procedures to ensure that all prisoners are monitored regularly and information is updated on NOMIS (the prison information system)

• Commitment, and funding, to set up a new neuro-diverse area

• Additional workshop and classroom space next year

• Later this year, Wandsworth will lose some of its role in servicing local courts and will only service Westminster. This should help reduce the churn of prisoners, but may increase the numbers of foreign nationals. 

Persistent Problems

• Due to staff absences (eg high sick leave), the regime is currently restricted with many prisoners out of cell for only 2-3 hours a day.

• ACCTs (Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork - the process to support vulnerable prisoners) are now spot checked using CCTV but in 2 out of 5 cases the entries on the ACCT forms of interactions were either missing or did not reflect what had really happened

• Only a small proportion of prisoners (c. 10%) have access to education, training or work

• Limited opportunities to use the library (c. 40 men per week) because of shortages of staff to escort men there

• Increase in availability of spice (which is particularly worrying) and hooch

• It will be several years before major improvements to Heathfield wings which house the majority of prisoners in Wandsworth.

  
  

You can read a more detailed report of our visit on our website and come to our next meeting on 18 October to find out more.

Families’ experience of Wandsworth Prison

Research shows that support from families helps to reduce reoffending. But it’s not always easy for families to support their loved ones. HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) wants to know about the experience of families. We carried out a special survey of families and told HMIP what families have told us about trying to visit and support their loved ones in Wandsworth Prison.

They told us that it’s sometimes difficult (and always expensive) for prisoners to phone their families, that clothes handed in go missing before reaching the man they are for and that visiting can be challenging. You can read our evidence to HMIP on our website.

National Policy

Better Prisons: Less Crime

The House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee does not pull its punches in its recent report into leadership, governance and staffing of prisons and the need for reform to reduce reoffending. It is highly critical of leadership from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Prison Service (HMPPS).

WPIC provided evidence to the committee and the report quotes from our submission several times. It makes recommendations on many of the areas WPIC has looked at in relation to Wandsworth such as the lack of Governors’ autonomy, the “woefully inadequate” training for prison officers, limited access to purposeful activity and the need for enhanced powers for the Chief Inspector. You can read more about what the committee had to say in the summary of the committee’s report on our website.

Independent Review of Prison Capacity

Dame Ann Owers’ report on the background to our crisis in prison capacity was published on 5 August. The report describes the mismatch between the number of prison spaces and the demand created by increased sentences, which has been getting worse over many years. The prison population grew from 66,300 in 2001 to 87,726 in 2024. Over the same period average custodial sentences increased from 14.7 months to 22.2 months.

Focusing on the most recent crisis, the report reveals that the criminal justice system came within three days of collapse in October 2023.  The response to repeated crises was “last-minute, short-term fixes rather than long-term solutions to the underlying problems.”

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmoud responded to the report by highlighting the Government’s plans to build more prison places and to reform sentencing.

A few days later, The Telegraph reported that two of the projects the Government is relying on to meet demand are “unachievable.” Will the cycle of crises continue?

We need your help. Here’s how.

• lobby your MP and ask them to write to James Timpson, Prisons Minister at the Ministry of Justice asking him to implement the recommendations of the House of Lords Justice committee’s report

• keep following WPIC on X/twitter, our website and like and share our tweets

• talk to your friends and relatives and call out all the old rubbish about cooked breakfasts and holiday camps. Tell them about men spending 22 hours a day locked in their cells with nothing to do and no privacy on the loo

• find out more about prisons. A good place to start is Inside Time. You can search for articles about Wandsworth and you can subscribe to their email newsletter for free.

• come to our next meeting at 10am on 18 October in the Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House, 59 Wandsworth High Street SW18 2PT. Please email us to let us know if you plan to come.