Prison officers are struggling to cope with broken windows, serious mental health issues and overcrowding at Britain’s oldest jail.
A watchdog has found that staff at HMP Leicester are under significant pressure at the 200-year-old prison.
The group found that the condition of cells has worsened.
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Broken windows and grills, which have been replaced with perspex sheets with holes, are allowing drugs to be smuggled in.
And there are long delays when it comes to taking prisoners suffering from acute mental illness to hospital.
One inmate waited 175 days until a suitable place was found, the watchdog said.
The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) reviewed the institution from February 2024 to January 2025 and found cases of violence rose to 270 from 186 in 2023.
The board, a group of volunteers who monitor prison standards, described the hike as worrying.
The IMB said the Category B jail, built in 1825, was no longer fit for purpose due to the large number of men being sent there, as reported by Need To Know.
It said population numbers fell in the summer of 2024 but by the end of January the prison was full again.
The prison “was not a suitable place” for prisoners with severe dementia, the board said, adding it did not meet their needs and was putting the inmates and staff at risk.
The board found a third of men released from the prison had no accommodation to go to and were more likely to reoffend.
The IMB advised there should be sufficient places in secure mental health facilities for prisoners who needed them.
The Ministry of Justice, which runs the jail, said £40m was being invested in new security measures this year to cut violence in prisons in England.
Trevor Worsfold, Leicester IMB chair, said: “The constant churn of prisoners at HMP Leicester makes it difficult for staff to keep them safe, respond to their needs and vulnerabilities and sufficiently prepare men for release so they are less likely to reoffend.
“In the Board’s view, the prison is well led but the high turnover of men and ageing buildings make prison staff’s already challenging task much harder.”
HMP Leicester is Britain’s oldest open jail.
It opened just 11 years after HMP Dartmoor, which is the oldest.
But Dartmoor was temporarily closed in 2024 due to high levels of radon gas, a naturally occurring radioactive gas, discovered at the site.
The closure led to the relocation of over 175 inmates to other prisons, and the future of the prison is currently uncertain, pending government spending decisions and ongoing mitigation effort.
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