WINCHESTER prison bosses have been criticised for not doing enough to protect vulnerable prisoners at the Romsey Road jail.

The criticisms are made in a new report published this week by Anne Owers, the Government's Chief Inspector of Prisons.

The report is the result of an unannounced inspection visit to the jail to check whether recommendations laid down after the last formal inspection in 2002 had been acted upon.

The jail, which has around 640 inmates, is currently overcrowded by 50 per cent, according to the inspectors, who made their surprise visit in December.

They were disappointed to discover that vulnerable prisoners were still easily identifiable because of a system of colour-coded cell cards which were seen by other prisoners who had to pass their cells each day to collect food.

The prison had originally accepted recommendations to cease this practice following the 2002 inspection, but later rejected them claiming to have carried out risk assessments.

But the latest inspection found that no such risk assessments had been carried out.

The new report also highlighted the lack of a dedicated detoxification unit at the jail, despite drug testing there revealing high levels of use.

And it said not enough was being done to provide purposeful work for inmates, with more than one-third of prisoners and two-thirds of vulnerable prisoners having no work.

The report also accused prison managers of "massaging" the work statistics by recording prisoners cleaning their own cells as "purposeful activity".

However, there was some good news for prison chiefs.

The report acknowledged the prison's improvement in healthcare, its successful resettlement programme which helps former inmates find work and housing upon release, and the improvements made to the quality of education and training for prisoners.

Prison governor Cathy Allison, who took over from Jim Gomersall in January, 2004, said measures were now being taken to address the inspector's concerns, and that a detoxification unit was due to open at the jail in a couple of months.

She also said concerns about the safety of vulnerable prisoners stemmed from a design fault at the prison, which was built in 1846.

It meant that every inmate had to enter D-wing, where the vulnerable prisoners are housed, to collect their food.

"It's a rather bad system, but one that I inherited."

Miss Allison added that new serving areas were being built so that all inmates could receive meals in their own wings.

Miss Allison also said the prison followed prison service guidelines regarding recording work statistics, which stated that cleaning duties should count.

She added: "Overall, I'm satisfied with the report, and it does reflect the progress that we've made, but there's some further work to do."