The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has revealed that HMP Wandsworth, a 170-year-old Victorian prison in south-west London, was forced to order thousands of extra coats, blankets and instant meals after its heating system failed in November last year.
The heating and hot water failure at the category B jail was reported as a “loss of service,” according to the IMB. Winter temperatures in the crumbling prison have been known to drop as low as 12C.
Emergency supplies ordered for inmates
To cope with the freezing conditions, prison authorities ordered an additional 1,500 coats, 1,000 blankets and 2,000 instant noodles and soups for the male inmates, the board said.
The IMB, made up of volunteers tasked by ministers with scrutinising conditions in custody, warned that the prison’s heating problems will continue until systems are replaced in their entirety, “rather than patched up in a piecemeal manner.”
Overcrowding and unsafe conditions
The IMB concluded that prisoners at HMP Wandsworth are being housed in “unsafe, overcrowded, unsanitary and squalid conditions.” The report noted that “the severe physical limitations of the Victorian buildings remain, with inhumane living conditions.”
Staffing also remains an urgent issue, with around one third of staff absent or unavailable every day on average. This increases the hours inmates spend locked in their cells, the IMB said.
HMP Wandsworth is the second most overcrowded prison in the country, holding 60% to 80% more people than it is designed for. The majority of prisoners share extremely cramped cells originally intended for single occupancy, according to the IMB. Almost half the prisoners are foreign nationals.
Recent scandals and escapes
Inmates released from HMP Wandsworth under the Government’s early release scheme this month described conditions inside the prison as “awful,” adding that “there’s not enough space.”
The prison has been embroiled in a number of scandals in recent years. Its governor was called in for crisis talks when two criminals were released by mistake in November last year. Also in 2025, former Wandsworth prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, was jailed for 15 months after having sex with an inmate in a cell.
In September 2023, former soldier Daniel Khalife, later found guilty of spying for Iran, escaped from the jail by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck. He was caught on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective days later.
Management challenges remain
IMB chairman Matthew Andrews said: “The commitment of a strong senior management team and a core of dedicated staff was commendable and meant the prison had a relatively good year. This was achieved despite the ongoing and chronic staff shortages.”
Andrews added: “However, in a remand prison where almost half the prisoners were foreign nationals and also many men had mental health problems, this ensured that significant management challenges remained.”
