G4S Director for HMP Wolds, Cathy James, said:

“We are encouraged that this report¹ recognises that while there are challenges to overcome at HMP Wolds, the prison also has many strengths. Few prisoners report feeling unsafe, the levels of violence are low and incidents of self-harm are lower than in similar establishments.

“We anticipate significant improvements in healthcare arrangements following our recruitment of new medical staff and our decision to bring the provision of healthcare in-house. We are working closely with the Primary Care Trust to improve both facilities and provision.

“Since HMIP’s inspection, we have opened a cutting edge technology suite to train prisoners and provide additional purposeful activity. This will allow us to build on the success of Summit Media, which is based at the prison and which has trained and employed over 450 prisoners in the past 10 years.

“In every prison managed by G4S, the care and welfare of those people in our custody is our top priority. We will be examining this report closely to see how we can best take forward its recommendations, where appropriate, and continue to build on the improvements already in progress.”

1  The report on an announced full follow-up inspection of HMP Wolds from 23-27 April 2012 was produced by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, and is available on the Ministry of Justice website. 

• For more information about HMP Wolds, visit www.hmpwolds.co.uk