'Bleak' Pentonville prison put into special measures

The chief inspector of prisons has described the sense of "helplessness" at Pentonville prison after the jail was put into special measures by a watchdog.  Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, described "bleak" conditions at the north London prison, where he said inmates had been illegally detained longer than their release date and supervised by staff who were either reading books or asleep.

Politics latest: Diane Abbott suspended from Labour Mr Taylor served an urgent notification on HMP Pentonville after an inspection discovered that 130 inmates - 20% of those eligible for release - had been held illegally after their release date in the last six months because staff "failed to calculate sentences accurately". The backlog in sentencing calculations also meant 10 prisoners had been released early "in error" between July 2024 and June 2025.

The watchdog's report also found that 60% of prisoners were sharing cells that were designed for one person, many living areas were dirty and that there was a widespread infestation of mice and cockroaches. Speaking to Sky News Breakfast, Mr Taylor said he had been forced to use the "rare" power of putting a prison in special measures because of the "chaos" at Pentonville.

"This is a big, busy London reception prison, Victorian, crumbling," he said. "But particularly worrying, we found new arrivals were coming into the jail with no bedding, no pillows.

I came across a guy who had only half a mattress in his room on his first night in prison. "We found prison staff who couldn't account for where their prisoners were during the day.

We found prisoners who were on constant watch, who were on suicide watch, being supervised by staff who were reading books, who were asleep in one case, and in one case, completely absent." Pentonville is the 10th prison to be issued with an urgent notification since November 2022, following Exeter, Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution, Woodhill, Bedford, Wandsworth, Rochester, Manchester and Winchester prisons. The emergency measure was introduced in 2017 as a way to raise immediate concerns following an inspection, which requires a response and action plan by the justice secretary within 28 days.

In a letter to Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, Mr Taylor said arrangements for new prisoners' first night at the north London jail and induction were "chaotic and even frightening.