Prison violence, drugs and self-harm rates 'still too high'

Drug abuse and rates of self-harm at a North West prison are still far too high, a watchdog has found.

HMP Altcourse in Fazakerley, Liverpool, has not suceeded in reducing either since the last previous inspection in July, according to His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor.

He said leaders had "responded positively" to many of the findings since a highly critical review in 2025, but there was still insufficient progress in some areas.

Taylor said the jail, which held 1,100 male prisoners at the time of the review, was "managing significant population pressures". An HMP Altcourse spokesman said it was focused on "addressing all of the areas identified by the inspectorate".

The July review followed up on 10 concerns raised by inspectors at the last full inspection of the category B reception prison in 2025.

Altcourse is intended to serve the courts of Cheshire, parts of Merseyside, and Bolton. But owing to national prison population pressures, prisoners were routinely diverted from out of the area, most notably from Forrest Bank in Salford.

At the time of the review, nearly a third of prisoners at Altcourse were on licence recall - one of the highest proportions currently in the reception estate, which is made of up prisons where newly arrived offenders are initially processed, assessed, and housed.

Taylor noted this put extra demand on areas such as offender management, public protection and resettlement.

"Despite the hard work we saw, progress remained uneven," he said.

"Drug use remained too high, rates of violence had not reduced, and self-harm rates remained among the highest for reception prisons."

The review also found too many prisoners were still released with no place to go.

At the 2025 inspection, 24% of prisoners had been released homeless, which had fallen, marginally, to 20% at the time of the review last month.

"Work to promote fair treatment remained underdeveloped; too many patients still waited far too long for transfer to mental health hospital; and weaknesses in public protection and accommodation outcomes for prisoners going into the community persisted," Taylor said.

Taylor found leaders had "responded positively to many of our findings".

He said they had "strengthened oversight, governance and use of data, particularly in healthcare, where investment had improved staffing and access to care".

Taylor said Ofsted also found reasonable progress across all three education, skills and work themes previously raised.

Inspectors highlighted an example of notable positive practice which other prisons may be able to learn from or replicate.

They found leaders had developed an effective method to record and review prisoners' skills development in work, and the report said prisoners appreciated the recognition of their developing skills and advice on how to improve them.

Prison food had also improved, with leaders acting on prisoner feedback.

Taylor said leaders "often demonstrated a much better understanding of the risks and challenges facing the prison" than inspectors previously found at last year's inspection.

He said this was particularly evident in the approach to violence, self-harm and drugs "where improved analysis and scrutiny had provided a stronger basis for decision-making and the development of more targeted responses".

He added leaders had made better use of information to understand the risks and vulnerabilities and had introduced several initiatives in response.

The chief inspector said the prison was "managing significant population pressures".

The report said the reception unit was one of the busiest in England and Wales, with 950 admissions in June 2026.

A HMP Altcourse spokesman said: "We welcome the chief inspector's latest review and are pleased the progress being made at HMP Altcourse has been recognised.

"The inspection judged that the prison had made either good or reasonable progress in a significant number of areas, including healthcare, education and work.

"Whilst it was assessed that reasonable progress had been made in relation to both violence reduction and tackling illicit drugs, we share the chief inspector's push for even further improvements in these areas.

He added: "Altcourse continues to operate amid significant population pressures with a complex, high-turnover prisoner population.

"But, working alongside our partners, we remain focused on building on the progress made and addressing all of the areas identified by the inspectorate."

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