HMP Chelmsford, a remand prison for men sent directly from court, has been reported to be overcrowded in addition to ‘damp and mouldy’ in a new report from the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB). The report also highlighted that there has been an increase of use of force at the prison between September 2023 and December 2024.
Overcrowding in the prison was highlighted in the report to be a severe issue. It states that a total of 69% of men in HMP Chelmsford share cells designed for single occupancy.
The report says: “This conflicts with the requirements of decency and respect and is in contravention of the United Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. The Board noted that, because of this overcrowding and pressure on space, some of the cells in the Victorian wings (A, B, C and D) continued to be occupied in winter, despite their damp and mouldy conditions.”
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The IMB then went on to say that the overcrowding of the prison in addition to the occupation of the Victorian wings is an “unsatisfactory” condition. The use of force was also highlighted to be increasing at HMP Chelmsford for the second year in a row.
The IMB says that this is mainly accounted for by an increase in guiding holds, but also driven by a renewed focus on using full control and restraint (C&R) techniques during planned moves as a way of reducing violence towards officers. However, the Board still finds the number of UoF incidents to be high.
In February, the laundry at the prison was closed due to issues with the machines, which caused problems within HMP Chelmsford. This issue was mitigated by sending weekly loads of dirty washing to HMP Ranby in Nottinghamshire.
Although this should have been a prison-wide concern, the report states that it impacted the men on C wing far more than anywhere else, while G wing also had difficulties. In early April 2024, the IMB received written and verbal complaints from men on C wing, stating that they had not had a kit change in seven weeks.
In this instance, wing staff were not collecting the bussed-in clean washing from the out-of-service laundry. The report states that the knock-on effect of this was to cause trouble in the wing population, with some men getting into and/or fearing getting into altercations with their cell mates through a perceived lack of hygiene.
This lack of hygiene was highlighted as a cause for concern by the IMB. A spokesperson from the IMB has now said that they did not observe any fights taking place as a result of the laundry being closed.
Andy, an IMB volunteer at HMP Chelmsford, commented on the report: “The overcrowding (69% of prisoners share a cell meant for one person) is reflective of the national crisis in the under-funding in prison capacity. HMP Chelmsford use of force levels are high relative to prisons of the same category and comparable size.
“Use-of-Force included guiding men back into their cells and does not imply prisoners were harmed in any way, the IMB routinely review use of force incidents. A-Wing ground floor has less than 10 cells and is used for the segregated prisoners, therefore, is generally not fully occupied.
“B Wing dampness was in the second half of last year identified as being down to micro-cracks in the showers flooring. This flooring has since been replaced and IMB have not seen any further black mould nor have prisoners reported it, we will continue to monitor this. The IMB report refers to ” fear of altercation”, the IMB did not observe any fights taking place as a result of the laundry being closed.”