Prisoners ‘stuck in cells with TV’ as cuts hit resources says jail inspector

Inmates were locked up and workshops were empty because there were not enough resources to get prisoners from their cells to the activities, Nick Hardwick said.

And in some jails up to one in 10 prisoners were now saying abuse of prescription drugs handed out officially by staff was an issue for them, he said.

On one visit to Britain’s largest jail, Wandsworth prison in south west London, excellent workshop facilities “stood almost empty and too many staff appeared indifferent about the prisoners”, he said.

Describing the situation as “shocking” and “frustrating”, Mr Hardwick said cuts meant there were now fewer officers to supervise prisoners and fewer managers to supervise them.

“It would be better if prisoners were out at work and some activity, rather than lying on their backs in their cells watching daytime telly,” Mr Hardwick said.

“But on the whole, the reason why they’re in their cells in the daytime is either because the activity isn’t available or because no-one’s making arrangements to get them from the cell to where the activity is. If that’s the case, then I don’t think it’s that people are making a positive choice that they’d rather watch daytime TV than go to an activity.

“It’s that they’re stuck in their cell and they’ve got that and that’s there.”

He added that “it would be better if there were more constructive things for them to do”.

“What tends to happen is that governors and senior managers are spending too much time in their office behind computers looking after budgets and not enough time on the wings leading by example,” he said.

But he praised the management of Manchester prison, formerly known as Strangeways, where the governor was doing rounds, workshops were “busy and purposeful and wing staff knew exactly who was not at work and why”.

Launching his annual report for 2011/12, Mr Hardwick warned Ministers need to consider that the “pressure is telling”.