HMP Oakwood, Inspections

The prison was given a full inspection in April 2024, the full report can be read on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website, just follow the links below. In their latest report the inspectors said:

HMP Oakwood is a category C training prison near Wolverhampton, run by G4S on behalf of HM Prison and Probation Service, holding 2,094 men against an operational capacity of 2,134. Inspectors rated safety and respect both Good, unchanged, while purposeful activity improved to Good, up from reasonably good, and preparation for release improved to reasonably good, up from not sufficiently good. The Chief Inspector described Oakwood as among the best prisons he had seen, a safe and productive jail despite holding a population of whom around 80% were assessed as posing a high risk of harm to others.

Around 95% of prisoners were engaged in purposeful activity, most of it full time, and almost all could spend at least eight hours a day out of cell. Ofsted rated education and skills provision Good, and staff-prisoner relationships were strong, with prisoners nearly half as likely again as at comparable prisons to say staff asked how they were doing. There had been no self-inflicted deaths in over eight years and no serious self-harm in the nine months before the inspection, and the prison ran at the lowest cost per place of any prison in England and Wales.

Inspectors nonetheless found only 17% of prisoners rated the food as good, and 45% shared cells designed for one. Drugs remained a problem, with an 18% positive rate on random mandatory testing, and access to psychological therapy was severely limited for those who needed it. The offender management unit was under-resourced, with caseloads of around 100 prisoners per officer, and too many men left with nowhere to live, with only around 15% still in employment six weeks after release.

Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
May 2024

HMP Oakwood

To read the full reports, go to the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website or follow the links below: