A British prison has been found to be rat-infested, full of mould and plagued by the highest levels of violence inside any prison in the UK.
Bedford Prison, a Category B men's prison in Harpur, Bedford, has been slapped with an urgent notification for improvement by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons, with Prison Minister Edward Argar slamming it as “unacceptable”. The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor wrote in his report that the place does not have “enough staff” and that prisoners were crammed into “overcrowded and squalid conditions”.
And he confirmed that “there had also been, almost unbelievably, an escape by a prisoner supposedly under constant supervision.” The report ranked the prison on four categories – safety, respect, purposeful activity and preparation for release.
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It ranked poor in all but the latter, which was marked as being “not sufficiently good”.
The notice report reads: “Three-quarters of the prisoners lived in overcrowded conditions. Most spent more than 22 hours a day locked in their cells. The wings were dirty and there was a widespread infestation of rats and cockroaches. Some cells had broken windows and black mould on the walls.
"The escape of a prisoner who was meant to be subject to constant supervision in July 2022 highlighted substantial weaknesses in security. The local security strategy remained incomplete after it had been deleted by a previous manager. In addition, mandatory drug testing was not taking place.
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"The segregation unit was squalid, staff were forced to use sandbags and wear wellington boots due to overflowing sewage pipes after heavy rain.” The report did try its best to praise staff, stating that there had been a lot of leadership changes over the last year. But went on to claim that the issues were “systemic” and that fixing them wouldn't be so easy.
“There will need to be a coordinated and sustained effort from national as well as local leaders to effect meaningful change at the prison,” it added. Justice Secretary Alex Chalk called the report a “damning indictment of the state of prisons”.
The Daily Star has contacted the Ministry of Justice for a comment.
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