Coats, blankets and soup ordered for inmates heating failed at London jail
Winter temperatures at HMP Wandsworth have been known to drop as low as 12C.
Thousands of coats, blankets and portions of soup had to be ordered for inmates at a crumbling Victorian-era prison when its heating system failed, a report has revealed.
Issues with the supply of heating and hot water at HMP Wandsworth in south-west London become so serious in November last year that it was reported as a “loss of service”, according to the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).
Winter temperatures at the crumbling 170-year-old prison have been known to drop as low as 12C.
An additional 1,500 coats, 1,000 blankets, 2,000 instant noodles and soups had to be ordered for the male inmates, the board said.
HMP Wandsworth’s IMB is made up of volunteers tasked by ministers with scrutinising conditions in custody.
The prison’s heating problems will continue until systems are replaced in their entirety, “rather than patched up in a piecemeal manner”, the report warned.
Prisoners at the category B jail are being housed in “unsafe, overcrowded, unsanitary and squalid conditions,” the IMB concluded.
“The severe physical limitations of the Victorian buildings remain, with inhumane living conditions,” it said.
"awful" conditions
Staffing also remains an urgent issue, with around one third of staff absent or unavailable every day on average, increasing the hours spent locked in cells for inmates, the IMB said.
Inmates freed from HMP Wandsworth under the Government’s early release scheme this month described conditions inside the prison as “awful”, and said “there’s not enough space”.
It 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, it added.
Number of scandals
Wandsworth 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 for spying for Iran, escaped from the south-west London jail by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.
He was caught on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective days later.
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.
“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.”