A third of men released from HMP Peterborough were left homeless last year (stock image) (Image: Google) Sign up to our dedicated Peterborough newsletter for the latest news direct to your inbox each day More Newsletters Subscribe Please enter a valid email Something went wrong, please try again later. More Newsletters We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show me See Our Privacy Notice See Our Privacy Notice × Group 28 Sign up to our dedicated Peterborough newsletter for the latest news direct to your inbox each day Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign Up No thanks, close We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info × Group 28 Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show Me No thanks, close See our Privacy Notice Nearly a third (30 per cent) of men released from a Cambridgeshire
prison in the past year were left homeless, a "worrying" inspection report has found. Peterborough prison is one of the UK's largest jails for new inmates. About 1,200 men have been released from the prison in the past year. About 700 men were received at HMP Peterborough after being recalled to prison for violating the terms of their community supervision. A housing adviser failed to visit the prison for more than a year and 333 prisoners were released homeless in the year to January 2024. The inspection report said: "Despite them having no address to go to, managers had been obliged to release some men 18 days early under the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme, only for some to return to prison before even their original release date had passed." Read next: Towering pile of rubbish appears in Cambridgeshire village 'for second time' Read next: Main Cambridgeshire road closed after lorry
fire The HM Inspectorate of Prisons' report said Interventions Alliance was the commissioned rehabilitative services (CRS) provider responsible for delivering housing support in the region. It said: "Despite receiving about 40 referrals every month, they were only profiled to provide 0.8 staff and, in reality, there had been no regular staff on site for over a year, other than occasional visits from a manager to triage the most critical cases." Chief executive of Shelter, a charity focusing on housing and homelessness, Polly Neate, said: "The prison or probation service must refer prison leavers at risk of homelessness to their local council for help. However, better joint working is needed to ensure people actually have somewhere to go when they leave prison. This work should start before they're released, so no-one ends up having to sleep on the streets. "Our services regularly work with people who have left prison with no suitable home to go to. The astronomical cost of renting and the barriers prison-leavers face mean many struggle to find somewhere affordable to live and, in some cases, they end up homeless and even sleeping rough." Drugs are 'easy to get hold of' in prison The category B prison, privately operated by Sodexo Justice Services, is said to be facing staffing challenges. About one-third of officers are reported as "routinely unavailable for duty". "Our survey findings showed that many staff felt unsupported, and morale was low," the report said. The deployment of senior staff to support other Sodexo prisons during the previous 18 months was also said to have "impacted negatively" at Peterborough. A survey of male inmates found a third said drugs were "easy to get hold of", and more than a quarter (27%) of those tested between April and December 2023 were found to be using drugs. Inspectors said this "represented a considerable increase since we last inspected". The report said: "16% said they had developed a drug problem since being at the prison." It added: "Prisoners were given the option of living on a drug-free wing, but this merely amounted to signing a compact (agreeing not to use illicit substances), with little clinical support on that wing." Inspection was 'worrying' Charlie Taylor, HM chief inspector of prisons, said: "This was a worrying inspection. It is particularly disappointing that Peterborough, which has historically been one of the better resettlement prisons in the country, has suffered for its more experienced staff being taken to shore up other struggling jails run by Sodexo. "But its deterioration also shows the strain that is on all of our prisons at the moment, with common themes such as drugs, staffing challenges, overcrowding and a revolving door for those caught in a cycle of reoffending. Until prisons focus on
BREAKING that cycle by providing meaningful education, employment and other rehabilitation, our communities will continue to suffer, because where there is reoffending there are more victims." An HMP Peterborough spokesman said: "We welcome the chief inspector's report and take on board fully his feedback and recommendations for improvement. Whilst we are pleased that the report recognises the hard work undertaken by our team to make the prison considerably safer, we fully acknowledge that some other areas, such as purposeful activity, require improvement. "Since the inspection, we have been working on an action plan that builds on progress to date and which will help us address these issues." Interventions Alliance has been approached for comment. Do you want more of the latest Cambridgeshire news as it comes in? Sign up to our dedicated newsletter to make sure you never miss a big story from Cambridge or anywhere else in the county. You can also sign up to our dedicated Peterborough, Traffic and Crime newsletters for the latest updates on the topics you are most interested in. Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Follow CambridgeLive
Facebook Twitter More On Peterborough