How high standards and visible leadership have created a truly rehabilitative culture at HMP Rye Hill

In contrast to many of our inspections this year, Rye Hill, a category B training prison holding men convicted of sexual offences, was providing good outcomes for prisoners in three of our four healthy prison tests. In this blog, Angus Jones, who led the inspection, discusses how the prison was achieving such impressive results.

At the heart of Rye Hill’s success was leadership. The director, who had only been in post since June, was following in the footsteps of his predecessor in being exceptionally accessible to staff and prisoners and setting high standards for his senior team. He carried out wing rounds every day while the men were unlocked and recorded a daily video message. This gave him a clear understanding of the concerns of prisoners and staff and made sure everyone was aware of his priorities.

Other leaders of all grades in the prison followed his example, with first line managers on the wings to support frontline staff during key times of the day. This support and supervision, combined with good initial training, meant that new staff were confident in their role. They were able to deal effectively with day-to-day requests from prisoners, reducing the frustration we regularly see in other prisons and providing a foundation for good staff-prisoner relationships.

The director had focused on dealing with previously poor perceptions of safety among older prisoners, holding forums to understand their concerns and taking clear action, such as amending the daily routine and enhancing peer support for this group. Such initiatives by the safety team had driven down already low levels of violence, and Rye Hill was now among the safest of all closed prisons.

He had also established a culture of continuous improvement and trust. Issues raised by prisoners and staff were taken seriously and they were included in developing strategies to address shortcomings. I was struck by the number of professionally organised peer support schemes and the scale of the community events programme. This included initiatives such as ‘Ready, steady learn to cook’, which helped prisoners to develop cooking skills, a festival of art and literature, and events exploring British history and culture. Almost every day there were events for prisoners to attend in addition to education or work.

By establishing a well-ordered, respectful community to which prisoners and staff were empowered to contribute, the director was able to focus on getting prisoners to education and work as well as addressing their offending behaviour needs. Prisoners were expected to engage in activity and almost all of them did. In our roll checks just 1% of prisoners were locked up during the working day, which was far better than at other sites.

The achievements of Rye Hill are no accident, and have been delivered in the face of the type of challenges we see at other sites. The prison had experienced a higher throughput of prisoners caused by national population pressures, and 40% of frontline staff had been in the job for less than 12 months. However, by focusing on the basics, and setting and enforcing high standards across the site, the director had created the space for staff to support prisoners and to develop some of the most innovative practice I have seen in recent years.