{"id":6527,"date":"2025-07-07T13:57:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T13:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prisonersadvice.org.uk\/?p=6527"},"modified":"2025-07-07T13:57:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T13:57:50","slug":"prisoners-at-hmp-lowdham-grange-recount-tales-of-violence-drugs-and-staffing-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/07\/prisoners-at-hmp-lowdham-grange-recount-tales-of-violence-drugs-and-staffing-shortages\/","title":{"rendered":"PRISONERS AT HMP LOWDHAM GRANGE RECOUNT TALES OF VIOLENCE, DRUGS AND STAFFING SHORTAGES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Howard League for Penal Reform has published new, first-hand accounts of life in HMP Lowdham Grange. Though\u00a0once described<\/a>\u00a0as \u201camong the most\u00a0impressive category B training prisons in the system\u201d, a\u00a0recent report\u00a0<\/a>revealed Lowdham Grange as a prison ‘in dire straits’, with the lowest possible ratings for safety and respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following testimonies address shortages of staff, mismanagement and violence: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c35 staff off (due to) sick leave. 17 staff off due to being assaulted. They are drafting staff in from other prisons cause they are really short staffed. They are stopping in hotels as well.\u201d \u2013 Darren<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c20 members of staff failed to turn up for work \u2026 this has resulted in the jail being run on a restricted regime and only 50% of the prison operating, this scenario is what sparked the last riots off.\u201d \u2013 Kevin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe staff here don\u2019t seem to care here about prisoners, [senior officers]  wont come out the office to speak to us. We spent 26 \u00bd hours in our cells only got half the regime we was meant to. Cold meals while behind doors. Those chips my dog wouldn\u2019t eat. 90% of the jail looks starved everyone is mad skinny and I ain\u2019t had a job since October 2024 so I just been sitting in my cell.\u201d \u2013 Joe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Serco handed over to Sodexo straight away the prison had staff issues, red regime straight away \u2026 Serco only had hold of the jail by their fingertips because of endless phone credit, goody packs, drink packs, clothing parcels, extra cakes \u2026 Sodexo stopped everything that was extra \u2026 and the prison rioted\u201d \u2013 Kevin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are suffering staggeringly high numbers of people nearly dying going code blue from the most potent drugs I have ever seen. People are segged off for their own good to get them off the drugs, they come back looking fresh but their built-up tolerance has gone and they use the same amount they used when last smoking \u2026 straight to code blue.\u201d \u2013 Kevin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI jumped over the railing \u2026 I done it because I was assaulted by a officer pushing me and slamming the door on my arm.\u201d \u2013 James<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have struggled with anxiety and panic attacks, it took me 3 \u00bd months to be assessed after I complained to CQC [Care Quality Commission] about lack of mental health services.\u201d \u2013 Levi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read further accounts, click here. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Howard League for Penal Reform has published new, first-hand accounts of life in HMP Lowdham Grange. Though\u00a0once described\u00a0as \u201camong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ben","author_link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/author\/ben\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The Howard League for Penal Reform has published new, first-hand accounts of life in HMP Lowdham Grange. Though\u00a0once described\u00a0as \u201camong […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}