Education and rehabilitation schemes may be pared down

The inspection of HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire concluded it was safer and had much better healthcare and drug programmes than a year ago.

But it found a lack of "purposeful activity" for inmates and 200 prisoners forced to double up in single cells.

The governor said she feared programmes may be cut due to overcrowding.

The service doesn't have an infinite pot of money, and we will be required to drop some of the work we do Sue Saunders Governor

A recent, unannounced, inspection came after the prison was threatened with privatisation, after the July 2003 report ranked it one of the poorest in the country.

It praised an emphasis on safer custody, a revised drug strategy and good staff-prisoner relationships.

But care of short-term prisoners and foreign nationals was poor, the report found.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers concluded: "Bullingdon has come a long way in a relatively short time and staff deserve considerable credit for this.

"However, there remains much to do if it is truly to fulfil its potential as a community prison.

"It is also clear that efforts to make improvements are considerably hampered by continuing population pressure".

'Only answer'

Governor Sue Saunders warned that education and drug rehabilitation services at prisons would suffer if alternatives to custody were not found.

"The service doesn't have an infinite pot of money, and we will be required to drop some of the work we do," she said.

This includes education programmes, a priority at Bullingdon where 80% of prisoners have a writing age of below 11.

She said prisons were seen as the only answer, but if they fail to provide detox and rehabilitation programmes for inmates, they are not serving the public property.