Million-pound super prison HMP Five Wells ranked among UK’s worst

In the latest ratings produced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the prison’s performance level is shown as having slipped from being “of concern” in 2023 to the lowest grade in 2024.

The main reason for the drop is security and stability, which has dropped from a good ranking in 2023 to the lowest possible.

Others on the list include Bedford, Bristol, Durham, Five Wells, Isis, Lewes, Long Lartin, Lowdham Grange, Manchester, Pentonville, Peterborough male, Portland, Wandsworth, Winchester, and Woodhill.

Five Wells, in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, was the first of six “super prisons” that aimed to revolutionise the penal regime by putting rehabilitation, work and training at the heart of it.

It was chosen by Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, as the location for her first big set-piece speech in post when she announced the Government’s new early release scheme to combat overcrowding.

At its first inspection of Five Wells in January this year, HM Inspectorate of Prisons said that inexperienced staff were not enforcing proper behaviour, self-harm was too high, healthcare provision was inadequate, drugs were too freely available, and there was a failure to get people to education and training classes.

A report made in September 2023 from the Independent Monitoring Board (IMI), its local watchdog, said staff recruitment was causing difficulties, with a shortage of experienced officers as well as education and workshop tutors and that this led to a lack of activities that could lead to future rehabilitation.

The performance statistics highlighted the failure of the prison to assist leavers to gain employment post release.

The IMB said there had been no consistent management at Five Wells, as the prison had seen three different directors in its first 15 months of operation.