High-risk sex attackers released from ‘grisly’ prison with little or no monitoring, damning report reveals
HIGH risk sex attackers were released homeless into the community with little or no monitoring due to “astonishing failings” at HMP Risley, spot check finds.
A damning report from the Prisons Inspectorate revealed a litany of failures at the Cat C jail – where two in five are sexual offenders.
Many did not have proper systems to monitor their phone calls and other contact with the outside world, inspectors found.
The run-down jail – dubbed ‘Grisly Risley‘ – had a poor record for public protection in the area surrounding the Cheshire jail.
And despite raising the fact there were no dedicated sex offender programmes back in 2016, there was still nothing to help retrain sickos when the inspectors did an unannounced visit.
Many were being booted out into the local community and had to sign on as homeless on the very first day they were let out.
The report said: “Far too many prisoners convicted of sexual offences were released without having completed offending behaviour work specific to their risks.
“Some prisoners, including those presenting a high risk of harm, would have been released without having undertaken offence-focused work.”
Chiefs said there was an “astonishing failure by the prison service” and they were “far too slow” at making vital changes.
Parts of the grimey estate are beyond repair, with high levels of violence and self-harm among the 1,000 inmates.
Lags also squabbled over getting vapes off each other – one of the main causes of debt and violence in the jail, it found.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We accept improvements must be made and we are already taking decisive action to address the serious issues raised in this report.
“We are recruiting more probation officers at HMP Risley to improve the risk-assessment of serious offenders and rolling out a dedicated programme to better manage sex offenders.
“We are also now supporting prisoners at risk of homelessness when released with basic, temporary housing while they find a more permanent home.”