Private prison slammed by watchdog

As the prison population of England and Wales hits a new all-time high of more than 81,000, the number of inmates at Rye Hill jail has been cut by 10% because of a range of failings.

For example, Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said there were serious concerns about inexperienced staff at the jail run by Global Solutions Limited (GSL), formerly known as Group 4.

One self-confessed racist and homophobic prisoner had mistakenly been trained as a "listener" to give other inmates confidential advice and support.

"Classroom efficiency" was measured by whether the teacher turned up, rather than whether prisoners attended, the report added.

It was unclear whether GSL would face financial penalties after the Ministry of Justice issued a "rectification notice" requiring the company to take urgent action.

Publishing the results of an unannounced inspection of the jail, Ms Owers said: "It was not clear that either staff or prisoners believed that the staff were in fact running the wings.

"We observed prisoners who were verbally aggressive to staff - indeed it was apparent that bad behaviour was rewarded since it achieved the result of attracting staff attention.

Although Rye Hill was not as dangerously unstable as it was at the previous inspection two years ago, it was still "fundamentally fragile", the chief inspector said.

Ms Owers' inspectors found suicide and self-harm procedures were poor, healthcare service was basic and there was no coherent resettlement strategy.