‘Support lacking’ at Eastwood Park

There are “insufficient resources” for supporting prisoners with histories of abuse at Eastwood Park women’s prison, a report by the chief inspector of prisons said this week.

An inspection of the Gloucestershire prison and young offender institution in March found “extremely high” levels of self-harm, with 65 incidents a week on average last year.

It also found that there had been “no co-ordinated learning” from previous deaths in custody.

Only a quarter of women were taking part in purposeful activity, and the juvenile unit was unable to manage the behaviour of some girls.

There were also concerns over “under-developed” first night procedures, inadequate measures to prevent bullying and a lack of substance misuse training for prison officers.