Comprehensive new inspection report published by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons for England and Wales (HM Inspectorate of Prisons) on Tuesday published a comprehensive inspection report on an unannounced visit to Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre carried out last October and November.
Image credit: WikipediaYou can read the 141-page report here.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons last visited Morton Hall in 2017 and found that overall safety had improved since then, from not sufficiently good to reasonably good, but concerns remain over high levels of self harm and violence.
The report stated: "There had been two self-inflicted deaths since the previous inspection, the most recent of which was in 2017. Recommendations from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman's investigation reports had largely been implemented. There had been 113 self-harm incidents in the previous six months, more than at the previous inspection. The reasons for this increase were unclear and required further investigation."
On violence, the report states: "Levels of violence had increased, but there was little serious violence. The strategy for improving safety was good. Procedural security was good and there was little evidence of significant drug or alcohol use. Physical security remained excessive for a detainee population. Use of force was generally low level and often related to preventing self-harm."
The majority of detainees interviewed for the inspection felt that overall safety at Morton Hall was either very good or quite good, but over a third of detainees interviewed said they personally felt unsafe.
Accommodation was found to be in an adequate condition, but the centre "looked and felt far too much like [a] prison."
While the number of detainees held for over a year had reduced to five compared with nearly 30 at the previous inspection, the potential for long-term detention continued to cause frustration and one detainee had been held for over two years, which HM Inspectorate of Prisons called "unacceptable".
The inspection found: "About two-thirds of the population left the centre within a month and there had been a marked reduction in lengthy detentions since our previous inspection. However, five detainees had been held for more than a year, with the longest detained for over two years. In the previous six months, 36% of detainees were released into the community, which raised questions about whether detention had been necessary in many cases. A further unknown number of detainees were released following transfer to another IRC."
The inspection also found that many detainees do not have ongoing legal representation.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons stated: "Detainees had reasonable access to legal advice surgeries. However, some detainees and a number of agencies working with them said that the quality of representation was inconsistent. The Lincolnshire Action Trust (a third-sector organisation working on criminal justice issues) was monitoring the standard of representation. Only 62% of detainees said they had an immigration lawyer and only 34% said it was easy to receive a visit from their lawyer."
The report added, however, that detainees had good access to the internet and could communicate with their lawyers by email, and websites for support organisations, country of origin information and legal advice were not blocked.
Peter Clarke, the head of HM Inspectorate of Prisons, said: "We make a number of recommendations which I hope will allow the centre to further improve its care for detainees, especially in the area of safety. However, this is a largely positive report documenting significant improvements in a centre where staff from a range of agencies are doing a creditable job in mitigating the potential harms of detention."