2011 Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner
A copy of the report is sent to the Governor or Director of the prison. They are required to
confirm, within a prescribed time period, that the recommendations have been achieved or
outline the progress they have made against achieving the recommendations. All of the reports
are also copied to NIU and the Deputy Director of Custody for the relevant prison region.
8.3. Review of 2011 Prison Inspections
At the time of writing this report there are 133 prisons in England & Wales subject to inspections
and 3 in Northern Ireland. Since the Inspectorate was formed in 2005 two thirds of the prisons
have been inspected at least four times. During the period covered by this report my inspectors
conducted 80 inspections at 79 prisons, which equates to nearly two thirds of the whole estate.
In addition, health checks were also conducted at 2 of the prisons which emerged poorly from
their full inspection.
Figure 16 illustrates that 57% of the prisons inspected achieved a good level of compliance with the
Act and Code of Practice.This represents a 15% increase on last year’s results which is significant.
However this percentage should be treated with care as the prisons inspected are not the
same every year. These prisons had generally fully implemented their previous recommendations
and as a result the majority had improved their level of compliance with the rules governing
the interception of prisoners’ communications. My inspectors found examples of good practice
firmly embedded in the systems and processes in these prisons. In these establishments the
managers and staff clearly demonstrated a commitment to achieve the best possible standards.
“57% of the prisons inspected achieved a good level of compliance with the Act
and Code of Practice.This represents a 15% increase on last year’s results which
is significant.”
Figure 16 – Comparison of Prison Inspection Results, 2010 vs. 2011
2011
2010
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