An independent review of prisons has found “notable inconsistency in policy and practice”, particularly at Westgate, with “weakness” in recruitment of staff and insufficient investment in infrastructure.

Staffing shortages in particular were highlighted as having a “significant negative impact on staff morale, especially at Westgate”.

Kim Wilkerson, the Attorney-General, tabled the report by the Detention Standards Review panel on Wednesday in the Senate — although large sections of the 41-page document appear to be redacted.

Ms Wilkerson said it contained “difficult findings” covering “serious and systemic challenges”, notably at Westgate. It came with 75 overall recommendations.

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice said good practices had also been reviewed. Westgate’s healthcare was said to be “particularly positive”, while the Co-Educational and Prison Farm facilities were found to have “a positive and hopeful regime” that “demonstrated what is possible”.

She added that a staff profile team from His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service was now on the island to ensure that roles and responsibilities were “properly aligned with operations needs and staff capacity” in the corrections system.

However, Ms Wilkerson told the Upper House that conditions at Westgate were “in several areas not fit for purpose”.

The independent assessment of facilities took place last year from October 6 to 15. Panellists comprised senior correctional leaders from the Turks & Caicos Islands, Britain and the Cayman Islands.

While the panel said that much of the prison’s underlying problems with staffing, infrastructure and programmes were beyond the control of prison management, its report concluded that “failures in oversight and accountability within the senior team were the primary causes of many poor outcomes observed”.

The report stated that Westgate “lacks a structured classification system to group individuals by risk, offence-type or rehabilitation needs”.

“The institution does not have formal written procedures for categorising or separating prisoners, and placement decisions are typically made based on accommodation availability and staff discretion rather than standardised assessment protocols or validated tools.”

Inmates charged with capital offences were said to be “placed in segregation for security reasons” upon admission but risk assessments were said to be informal and “undocumented”.

The report recommended: “Immediate action is needed to ensure segregation is lawful and transparent. It must be authorised by a competent authority, reviewed regularly, used only when necessary and proportionate, and never applied as routine discipline.”

Overall, the panel found “critical issues within the accommodation, infrastructure and environmental conditions at Westgate”, requiring “immediate” intervention to “provide humane conditions for prisoners and staff”.

The Co-Ed and Prison Farm facilities were found to be in better condition.

The reviewers found that the prison’s complaints procedure, “while formally established, is slow and has lost the confidence of the inmate population”.

Among other issues highlighted in the report, the prison’s use of force policy was found to be “reactive rather than regulated”.

Assessors found that between March and September 2025, four staff use-of-force incidents and six prisoner-on-prisoner assaults were recorded. The report found “no evidence of disproportionate use but limited data prevents full assessment”.

The report advised: “Avoid routine handcuffing of remand prisoners; restraint use should be risk-based and evidence-informed.”

Roughly half of Westgate inmates “lack understanding of their rights”, with the prison handbook dating to ten years ago “not routinely distributed” and newly arrived inmates given no access.

Ms Wilkerson told the Senate that the report “documents years of underinvestment and a gap between the standards we are bound to meet and the conditions that have, in some areas, been allowed to persist”.

She said the recommendations, with “a clear action plan and the combined commitment to improve this system”, were driving “the sustained, essential work of institutional reform”.

Ms Wilkerson added: “I commit to return to this Senate quarterly to report on that progress.”

Ms Wilkerson later told The Royal Gazette that she would hold the leadership accountable, but recognised that some decisions were made out of desperation.

She said: “We have not put enough investment in our people so that people are trained to be able to deliver the standard that we’d like them to.

“Sometimes that’s been a result of people on the site running around putting out fires — so there isn’t the opportunity to do that kind of strategic thinking you could do if you were fully staffed in a proper way.

“We will be looking at accountability going forward. But it’s important to arm people with the tools they need to deliver.”

Ms Wilkerson said she was “very disappointed” with the outcome of the latest recruitment round.

She said: “When you start with a big field and you end up with a very small one, you have to examine what’s happened.”

The justice minister said she would examine recruitment policies for unnecessary barriers or outdated testing standards.

She cited the psychological test, which she said many seemed to struggle with.

Ms Wilkerson said an information campaign might dispel concerns among potential applicants on issues such as having to monitor someone they knew.

She added that recruitment efforts would focus on men to match the predominantly male population of Westgate.

“It’s not just a thing of filling the vacancies, but it may be possible that we may need more roles than we think we need.

“I’m going to be interested to see what the final result of the report is.”

Ms Wilkerson recognised that a large population of the prison did not receive necessary mental health assistance and said she hoped to overhaul psychiatric infrastructure.

She said she wanted to make sure that corrections officers got more consistent “mental health first aid” training.

However, Ms Wilkerson added: “It is a challenge. We’re looking at what can be done in terms of programming.

“I’m also having conversations with Overseas Territories — I was recently in the [British Virgin Islands] and they’re dealing with the same issues.

“So there may be some regional solutions to help us solve that problem.”

Ms Wilkerson said the corrections department was also assessing inmates’ skills, education and mental health history to better assist those in need, with hopes for an information management system.

Ms Wilkerson said the National Violence Reduction Strategy would be crucial in helping people to reintegrate into society after coming out of prison.

She added that it would involve goals such as offering fair opportunities for employment.

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• To read the minister’s statement in full, see Related Media