A REPORT into the treatment of prisoners at HMP The Verne has criticised the lack of progress made in the provision of social care.

It has also called for a community hospital to be set up at the Portland prison.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), a group of volunteers legally required to monitor the treatment received by those detained in custody to confirm it is fair, just and humane - by observing the compliance with relevant rules and standards of decency, has published its annual report into the prison.

The IMB report said it was with ‘considerable regret’ that it was unable to identify any progress in the provision of a facility that would enable the social care needs of prisoners to be met more adequately.

They said that with nearly 90 inmates over the age of 70, the need for such a facility ‘can only become pressing’. 

The group said it would like to see a community hospital established at The Verne in order to ‘lessen reliance’ on Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester and allow prison officers to be deployed more effectively within the prison and reduce re–offending. 

Dr Madeleine Webb, chairman of IMB The Verne, said: “The COVID pandemic showed just how frail many of the elderly prisoners at The Verne are.  A small hospital facility would enable much of the routine treatment they need to be undertaken there and reduce dependence on Dorset County Hospital. It would also reduce the time prison officers spend on escorts, enabling them to devote that time to programmes aimed at resettlement and reducing re-offending.”

HMP The Verne is a category C prison on Portland that houses sex offenders including, until recently, disgraced pop star Gary Glitter.

The report praised the ‘mutual respect’ between staff and prisoners and praised the safety of the prison. It notes that the 600 men in the prison ‘are able to participate in a wide range of employment and educational activities’. 

It criticised the fact that prisoners required regular visits to hospital for routine treatment which, they say, could be provided in an ‘appropriately resourced facility’ within the prison.

An extract reads: “The Board understands that there is currently no plan to establish a ‘community hospital’ at The Verne. This has been discussed in earlier years. Reducing the need for elderly prisoners to visit Dorset County Hospital for minor procedures would offer considerable savings in staff time on escort and bedwatch duties.”