PRT comment: HMP Rochester

Commenting on the findings of conditions at HMP Rochester by HM Inspectorate of Prisons today (1 February), Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:

“Yet another prison report uncovers the chronic strategic failures which lie behind the failure of so many of our prisons. Rochester prison should have been a note in the history books by now, closed because it had reached the end of its useful life. But ministers’ insatiable appetite for locking people up means it has had to limp along, vermin infested and unsanitary. Worse may yet be to come, with staff leaving the prison much faster than they can be replaced.

“Rochester is far from an isolated example. More prisoners and fewer staff represents a perfect storm for our prisons, and it will soon be upon us.”