Rat-infested prison with raw sewage covering floors ‘worst I’ve ever seen’, inspector says

Widespread infestation of rats, cockroaches and pigeons plaguing cells, report finds

A Victorian prison infested with rats and cockroaches where drainage problems caused raw sewage to cover cell floors has been described as “the worst I have seen” by the prison’s watchdog.

Her majesty’s chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, visited HMP Bedford at the end of last year to find appalling standards of accommodation in some of the cells. He said that on the E wing “the smell of mould in one cell was overpowering, with walls damp to the touch”.

In his report published on Wednesday, Mr Taylor said the underground segregation unit was “a disgrace”, adding: “Here, problems with the drainage mean that on very wet days, raw sewage covered the floor and the cells were dark, damp and dilapidated”. He said often very mentally unwell prisoners were living in these “wholly unsuitable conditions”.

HMP Bedford was very overcrowded (HM Prisons Inspectorate)

Sandbags and Wellington boots were stored on the segregation unit to help staff deal with the flooding. There was a “widespread infestation” of rats, cockroaches and pigeons, the report found, with prisoners resorting to creating their own barriers to prevent vermin from crawling into their cells.

Chief executive at prisons charity Howard League, Andrea Coomber, said the images in the report were “an utterly appalling indictment of the prison system”.

A table titled ‘cockroach competition’ showed the number of times prisoners had found the vermin in their cells (HM Prisons Inspectorate)

One photo showed a table, etched onto a cell wall by a prisoner, that counted the number of times cockroaches had crawled into view.

Nearly a third of the prisoners at HMP Bedford, a male inner-city prison with a maximum of 400 spaces, were released straight into homelessness, the inspector warned - meaning it was “virtually impossible” to stop the cycle of crime and imprisonment.

Cells were often covered in marks and graffiti (HM Prisons Inspectorate)

Staff used sandbags and wellington boots to cope with flooding in the segregation unit (HM Prisons Inspectorate)

Levels of violence at the prison were very high compared to similar prisons, with the fifth highest rate of assault amongst inmates.

Security of the prison was also a concern as someone had escaped from inside the prison perimeter in July 2022 and the inspector’s security team had found the security systems to be “unsatisfactory”. Rates of self-harm were very high, with 533 incidents in the past 12 months - one inmate had also died by suicide.

A cell in the segregation unit at Bedford prison (HM Prisons Inspectorate)

Bedford prison was also very overcrowded and understaffed, the inspector warned, with more than 100 repair jobs outstanding. A programme to paint and decorate the cells was often not operating because of a lack of staff, the report found.

A prison service spokesperson said: “The findings of this inspection are unacceptable which is why we’re taking urgent action to address the concerns raised. This includes deploying extra frontline officers to reduce violence and improve safety, undertaking refurbishments to improve living conditions, and ensuring offenders get greater access to the education and skills they need to turn their backs on crime.”