A PRISON for young men has been ‘thrown into chaos’ by changes to its role made in response to national prison population pressures.

HMP Aylesbury, which previously housed young men aged 18-21 convicted of violent crimes and serving long sentences, has been redesignated as a training establishment.

This is due to issues with rising numbers of prisoners needing accommodation elsewhere in the estate.

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As a result of this change, which was ‘sudden and without sufficient consultation, notice or support’, a number of issues has been identified throughout the prison by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons.

Five priority concerns were identified: a shortage of staff in all grades and disciplines, shortage of suitably trained and experienced nursing and pharmacy staff, prisoners spending less than an hour out of their cells per day, leaders and managers did not use data effectively to evaluate the impact of the education, skills and work curriculum and drive improvements, and the resignation of the prison without notice.

Ten further concerns were noted as ‘key concerns’ ranging from levels of violence towards staff to limited access to work and study for prisoners.

Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of prisons, said in the report: “Aylesbury has been a prison in difficulty for some time – successive inspections have found it struggling with its existing role as a young offender institution.

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“But those challenges have been compounded by this sudden and chaotic redesignation to a Category C training jail coupled with extreme staffing problems.

“The prison needs significant and immediate support from the prison service to mitigate the level of risk it presents not only for prisoners held there but also for the community into which high risk offenders are being released with little to no work to reduce their risk of reoffending.”

The report noted that the shortage of staff in all grades and disciplines was evident, this included access to health care, time out of cell, education, skills and work and rehabilitation services.

In healthcare, the situation was noted as ‘so dire’ that the prison service was unable to send prisoners over the age of 40 to Aylesbury as they could not be ‘safely cared’ for in the jail.

It added that nearly 40 per cent of prisoners who were unemployed often had less than an hour out of their cells a day.

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The report stated that many prisoners said they were unable to shower every day.

Mr Taylor added: “Until Aylesbury receives the support it desperately needs to improve, it will remain a high-risk institution.”