After an official inspection of men’s high security prison HMP Swaleside has led the Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor to issue an Urgent Notification to the Secretary of State for Justice after inspectors found dangerously unsafe conditions.
Charlie Taylor said: “It was shameful that such an important and risky prison had been left without a permanent governor for such a long period. The current governor had only been in post for five months and although she had developed plans for improvement, there had been little progress in addressing serious challenges. Many hard working staff were doing an impressive job in extremely difficult circumstances, but during our inspection we were very troubled by a palpable level of tension and a pervasive sense of despair in the jail. The appalling outcomes we found at Swaleside, holding some of the most dangerous men in the country, represent serious failings by leaders in the prison service to address the systemic problems at this troubled jail.”
According to a report, the inspection last month heard that three-quarters of prisoners said they had felt unsafe in the prison. In 2025, six men had been assaulted or stabbed during their first night in the jail. A third of men said they had been physically assaulted. Drug taking was rife, with drones regularly bringing in contraband, including knives. The prison was failing in its core function as a training prison, and ‘and leaders were not visible on the wings’, Taylor said in the notification letter to Justice minister and deputy prime minister David Lammy.
“During our inspection, more than 20 troublesome prisoners were shipped out to other jails, and the National Tactical Response Group had been temporarily brought in, including patrol dogs, to maintain order,” Taylor wrote. Swaleside, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, according to the letter is ‘holding some of the most dangerous men in the country’.
Comment
Chief Executive of the charity the Howard League for Penal Reform, Andrea Coomber KC said: “This alarming report typifies the chaos, violence and a lack of control that is increasingly common in the long term and high secure prison estate. Swaleside is supposed to be a training prison for men on long sentences that keeps the public safe and gives people the skills and support they need to move on from crime. But the dismal findings from this inspection reveal the opposite – violence is rife, the men are unsafe, held in squalor, and there are shocking gaps in public protection.
“This is the latest in a long line of inspections that reveal the level of disorder that exists in a prison system on the brink of collapse. Without effective leadership and reform, and proper investment, prisons such as Swaleside will continue to fail their staff, the men in their care and the public.”
Committee
Meanwhile Chair of the Justice Select Committee of MPs Andy Slaughter reiterated that ‘HM Prison and Probation Service’s ability to maintain safety and control, and offer effective rehabilitation is being critically undermined by the scale of the trade and use of illicit drugs’. He said: “Without such reform and investment that tackles the profitable supply networks, the discrepancies in treatment provision and purposeful activity, plus the poor condition of the estate and serious capacity pressures, prisons will remain unstable, unsafe and incapable of gaining control over the drugs crisis.”
