Living conditions in HMP Ford not 'humane', says watchdog

Accommodation at HMP Ford is "certainly not decent or humane", according to a prison watchdog.

The report found that 7ft x 12ft wartime billets that are designed for one person are being used to house two inmates.

The Independent Monitoring Board visited HMP Ford in West Sussex, three miles from the historic town of Arundel.

A 25-page document described living conditions in the category D open prison as "not hygienic".

Two prisoners were forced to share a small wartime billet

The majority of A-wing using "cleaning dishes and cutlery in bathroom hand basins," according to the report.

Many of the six washers and four dryers in the prisoners’ laundry are also regularly broken, with returning workers left with no source of clean or dry clothes.

A broken blast chiller in March meant that any meal containing lamb or beef has been taken off the menu.

The report read: "For the twelfth year the board reports that the accommodation at HMP Ford is still in a parlous state, with not only physical dilapidation but overcrowding by double manning in 7ft x 12ft rooms of B wing wartime billets - certainly not decent or humane.

"Two kitchen areas in A-wing were upgraded before lockdown but that leaves the majority of the wing, as reported in previous years, cleaning dishes and cutlery in bathroom hand basins which is not hygienic.

"Prisoner complaints about the food were not without basis.

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"The breakdown of the blast chiller in March meant that many of the menu options previously offered, particularly those containing lamb or beef, had to be withdrawn.

"A replacement blast chiller had still not arrived by the end of the reporting period."

The annual report also found that two new cookers sat idle for most of 2020 as they could not be connected to the prisons gas supply.

Having been "exposed to the elements", it is unclear if they will work if they are eventually connected.

It is the second year running that the board has reported kitchen equipment failures.

HMP Ford was converted to an open prison in 1960 from a former Fleet Air Arm station.

It has an operational capacity of 544, however, during the pandemic, this has been reduced by between 20 and 30 prisoners to enable new inmates to self-isolate.

The accommodation comprises a brick-built block with 274 single rooms (A wing) and 20 smaller billets (B wing), mostly prefabricated, though two are brick built.

The Ministry of Justice told The Argus that it will invest £315 million in the next year to improve the existing estate and tackle the most pressing maintenance issues.

This will be supported by a further 1,000 temporary cells.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “We are investing £315m in improving our prisons and £4bn in creating an additional 18,000 places over the next decade to expand capacity.”