Prisons: Jail regime condemned as appalling

Mentally ill inmates are being locked in their cells for up to 19 hours a day in "disgraceful" conditions at a jail visited by Sir David Ramsbotham, the chief inspector of prisons.

The health-care centre at Parkhurst prison, the scene of a break out in 1995 when three lifers escaped from the jail on the Isle of Wight, was severely criticised in the report published yesterday. Sir David said: "The regime for patients, particularly those with mental heath disorders, is not only unacceptable it is punitive and more akin to that found in segregation units. This regime must cease immediately." He added that he was amazed the Prison Service had allowed such an "appalling regime" to continue at the secure category B jail because they had been criticised as long ago as 1994.