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Inspectors to HMP Nottingham, a reception and resettlement prison serving the courts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, found the prison is still struggling to maintain a safe environment and a meaningful regime.

Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of Prisons, said: “In 2018 we issued an Urgent Notification, a rare event but indicative of the situation in the prison at the time.

"Since then, we have seen evidence of greater grip and some progress, although this is not yet reflected in our healthy prison scores. Indeed, at this inspection outcomes in rehabilitation and release planning had got worse.”

Levels of self-harm had reduced by 17 per cent since the last inspection, but remained too high, and there had been one self-inflicted death since HMI Prisons had last visited.

HMP Nottingham was visited by HM Inspectorate of Prisons

The case management and oversight of prisoners on constant supervision was not good enough. Many prisoners on an ACCT, the care planning process for those at risk of suicide and self-harm, reported feeling uncared for.

Violence was now at similar level to comparator prisons, but arrangements to reduce it further were not understood by staff or prisoners, and oversight and management of those on the programme was poor. Use of force, however, remained high and there was inconsistent attendance at use of force meetings and a failure to use data to better inform practice.

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The regime was reopening slowly after the lifting of pandemic restrictions, but unemployed prisoners, who made up 45 per cent of the total population, were locked up for 22 hours a day.

There were too few work places and the allocation process was inefficient. Although the education curriculum was well defined, this was hampered by the lack of education places, particularly for functional skills and language classes for non-English speakers.

However, prisoners in vocational workshops were developing good skills which would increase their employability on release.

Mr Taylor said: “We inspected at a time of transition in the leadership of the prison. A new governor had recently arrived, and he seemed to be building on the stability and steady improvement created by the previous incumbent.

"Oversight arrangements were getting better, and the priorities identified for the prison appeared to make sense.”

Nottingham Prison needs improvements to become a safe environment, say inspectors