Prisoners with coronavirus not allowed to shower for weeks, report finds

A view along a wing of Wandsworth prison
Corbis via Getty Images
Kit Heren18 May 2020

Prisoners with coronavirus symptoms were kept locked up in prison cells without being allowed to shower or exercise for weeks, a new report has found.

The findings were published in a study on Monday after prison inspectors looked at conditions in three jails - Wandsworth in south London, Altcourse in Liverpool and Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

Chief inspector of prisons Peter Clarke said: "The vast majority [of all prisoners] were locked up for nearly the whole day with usually no more than half an hour out of their cells."

He said that even greater restrictions were in place in Wandsworth prison, which was built in the 19th century.

21 prisoners have died with coronavirus in the UK 
PA

Mr Clarke said that in Wandsworth "a small number of symptomatic prisoners had been isolated in their cells without any opportunity to come out for a shower or exercise for up to 14 days,” although most inmates were still able to shower regularly.

Wandsworth made the decision to isolate these prisoners “in consultation with Public Health England, and as a result of the lack of space for a protective isolation unit,” Mr Clarke reported.

He added that a prisoner the inspectors met told them that two weeks of isolation had affected his mental health.

Mr Clarke said that good social distancing measures had been put in place in the prisons they inspected, but rules were hard to follow because of cramped conditions.

"Narrow landings and cramped accommodation made social distancing extremely difficult in some parts of each prison," he added.

"We also saw too many staff were unnecessarily crowding into small offices in some prisons. It was obvious that important messages were not always fully understood or practised."

The report found that social distancing measures were hard to observe in prisons 
PA

Twenty-one prisoners have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK. 500 staff members have tested positive for the virus, alongside 400 inmates. The virus has been found in 74 UK prisons.

It emerged last week that only 83 out of 4,000 eligible prisoners had been released temporarily from prison, as part of a scheme to protect vulnerable prisoners.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The Government’s strategy to restrict the spread of coronavirus in prisons relies on tens of thousands of people being held in either overcrowded conditions or prolonged solitary confinement. This is neither humane nor sustainable.

“Ministers must take decisive action to reduce the prison population, to provide more purposeful regimes and save lives. With the courts beginning to hear cases again, prisons risk becoming engulfed unless we see more urgency to release people safely.”

Peter Dawson, director for Prison Reform Trust, said prison managers, staff and inmates should be praised for working together “to make the best of an impossible situation”, but accused ministers of not doing “all they could to help”.

He added: “This important report shows why there is absolutely no room for complacency about the crisis in our prisons.”

HMP Altcourse on Merseyside
Sue Adair/Creative Commons 2.0

The report praised prison staff and inmates overall for their work in "exceptional" conditions.

Mr Clarke said: "It was a credit to the approach of staff and skilled crisis management by senior managers that all the prisons were stable and prisoners we spoke to were largely supportive of the action that had been taken."

"Clear and imaginative communication from senior managers to prisoners and staff underpinned these findings."

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