HMP Altcourse went from good to failing — and men are dying

On a warm night in September 2023, Stephen Bird was taken to HMP Altcourse on remand for a drug offence. Prison staff guided him through its modern, brick-faced halls into Furlong, the wing reserved for inmates withdrawing from substances and named, like the other six wings at Altcourse, after features of the Grand National steeplechase route. 

​Stephen was in his early fifties and bald, with a narrow face etched with deep smile lines in beaming pictures later shared with the press. He was kind and affable, his sister remembered – a hardworking bricklayer, until alcoholism took hold. 

​On checks upon arrival, a nurse found him distant and taciturn. A nurse who knew him thought he wasn’t acting himself. She was right. After four days at HMP Altcourse, Stephen was found dead in a cell in the prison’s healthcare unit. 

A report by the prisons and probation ombudsman – the body that investigates deaths in custody – mostly absolved the prison of responsibility for Stephen’s death. “We are satisfied that before 8 September, Mr Bird gave no indication to staff that he was at risk of suicide,” the ombudsman wrote. “I make no recommendations.” 

​But several key details, later revealed in the inquest, never made it into the ombudsman report, raising questions about the ombudsman’s conclusions. 

​In this investigation, the Post reveals the extent of HMP Altcourse’s decline under the control of the French catering company Sodexo. In 2021, the chief inspector of prisons called Altcourse “one of the better local prisons in the country”. Four years later, inspectors levelled damning verdicts.