PRISONERS in Oxfordshire have been spending 23 hours a day locked up in a cell during the pandemic.

For the other hour, inmates have been able to shower and get outside for some fresh air.

But according to the inspectors who visited HMP Huntercombe, near Wallingford, in December, lockdown has taken its toll on the mental health of the men.

The prisoners also say that they felt ‘victimised’ by staff who were ‘dismissive’ about the time they had spent locked up and the ‘anxiety’ around immigration cases.

The Category C prison is one of the only two prisons in England with the sole purpose of holding convicted foreign nationals.

Oxford Mail:

At the time of inspection, on December 1, 8 and 9, there were about 400 men jailed – slightly less than the previous inspection in 2017 but more than the ‘uncrowded capacity’ of 370.

About a quarter of the prisoners there had some form of employment, increasing the time they could spend outside of the four cell wells – but according to Her Majesty’s inspectorate there were ‘missed opportunities’ for more activities in a safe way.

The inspectors also noted that there hadn’t been any outbreaks of coronavirus until early December when a test result came back positive.

They said that ‘healthcare was effective’ and ‘despite staff shortages’ the team managed essential services well – keeping the waiting lists for hospital appointments short and offering mental health one-to-one sessions with prisoners as needed.

In the report published last month, the inspectors said: “The speedy and highly effective rollout of video-calling technology had helped prisoners to maintain family relationships throughout the pandemic and showed what the prison was capable of achieving.

“Recorded violence and use of force had remained reasonably low, and well-attended monthly meetings provided adequate strategic oversight of safety.”

During the visits in December, the team used a sampling method to hand out questionnaires to 178 of the inmates.

Of those, 155 were returned.

Out of the people asked, 119 were aged 26 to 49.

Just under 20 of them were under the age of 25 and 16 were over 50.

In the report they explained: “A fifth of prisoners in our survey said they felt unsafe and a third that they had been victimised by staff.”

They added: “The latter proportion was higher among both younger and black and minority ethnic prisoners. The reasons for this were unclear, but prisoners made a range of comments about staff, including dismissive attitudes to their concerns about the amount of time locked up, anxiety about immigration cases and concern about inconsistent social distancing.”

The inspectors also took note that the cells itself were clean and in good order.

In fact, prisoners hired as cleaners and ‘social distancing’ champions were deployed to clean high contact points between groups of prisoners being let out of their cells for the hour.

There have been no deaths at HMP Huntercombe since the last full inspection and levels of self-harm have remained at their ‘traditionally’ low level.

Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons said: “In summary, this is one of the most positive scrutiny visits that we have so far undertaken.”

He added: “The prison was well led and progressive and, while we have identified some concerns that need to be addressed, prisoners generally spoke positively of their experiences at Huntercombe.

“The prison and HM Prison and Probation Service leadership are to be commended for the work they have done to respond to long-standing shortcomings in rehabilitation and release planning.

“We look forward in due course to seeing the further development of this work.”

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