Wandsworth Prison has been plagued by incidents of self harm and seen a spike in the number of deaths in custody in the past year, it has emerged.

According to an annual Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) report, standards at the Heathfield Road prison have fallen over the last 12 months - prompting calls for urgent changes to be made.

In its newly-published assessment for 2010, the IMB raised several areas of concern with the Secretary of State including “an area-wide shortage of officers”, “high levels of staff sickness”, and officers being “brusque and evasive” when dealing with prisoners’ queries.

The report states: “The frustration felt by prisoners is palpable. There have been disturbances in the form of assaults on staff, cell fires and incidents of ‘potting’.”

Potting is prison slang for attacks on officers in which inmates cover them in a bucket of excrement.

It continued: “Use of force has increased across the prison, and particularly against foreign nationals. Thirty per cent of prisoners in Wandsworth are foreign nationals and use of force against one particular group, Eastern Europeans, has increased dramatically.”

However, the reports notes the area of “great concern” as being the self-harm figures for the past year, which have more than doubled. In 2009 there were 240 recorded incidents but that figure has leapt to 490.

Between June, 2009, and May, 2010, there were nine deaths in custody, compared with none in the previous 12 month period. Four of these deaths were self-inflicted, three from natural causes and two have not yet been fully investigated.

The report also detailed worries over prisoners’ property going missing during transfers, “serious problems with the provision of canteen service” and a pressing need to recruit doctors and nurses to custodial healthcare.

In contrast, Europe’s largest prison was commended for the opportunities offered to prisoners to learn new skills, having a clean interior and exterior and the “tireless” support of prisoners of all faiths and none by chaplaincy staff.

The prison was also praised for dealing with a Salmonella outbreak last September and to a Norovirus scare in January.

A spokesman for the Prison Service said: “We thank the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Wandsworth for its report, which will be fully considered by ministers. We will respond to the board in due course.”

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