Maghaberry prison is one of the worst jails in the UK, a damning report has claimed.

A team of inspectors who carried out a surprise visit to the prison said it has “serious operational difficulties” that cannot be allowed to continue and called for urgent action to address the poor standards.

The inspection was carried out in January this year, six months after an inmate hanged himself while under supervision in a specialist unit.

The report by the Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons said the jail, which is one of the most expensive in the UK to run, was one of three out of 169 inspected which was particularly poor in the area of safety.

Criminal Justice Inspector Dr Michael Maguire said: “With an average annual cost per prisoner place of £81,500, Maghaberry is one of the most expensive prisons in the UK. Yet, it has been found to be significantly under-performing in relation to what is expected of an effective UK prison in the 21st century.

“It is a prison with serious operational difficulties that will require a concerted effort to change. Our overall conclusion is that the current position at Maghaberry cannot continue and there remains significant room for improvement in its operation as a public service,” he said.

A total of 200 recommendations have been made — 11 of which the chief inspectors have indicated require urgent action.

Prisons Minister Paul Goggins said he was “disappointed” at the findings but welcomed steps already in place to improve the prison: “Whilst there are many dedicated and hard-working staff at Maghaberry there is substantial room for improvement and I have already made clear to the new governor that there has to be a step-change in the way the service is delivered at this prison.”

Prison Service director Robin Masefield admitted there is “a major challenge ahead for the governor and staff at the prison” but stressed that progress has been made: “Safety is a crucial area for every prison and while it is worrying that Maghaberry Prison was judged to be performing poorly, many of the issues had been identified ... and I will give ... my full support in implementing developments following this comprehensive report.”

The report said that inspection was carried out against the four criteria that make up the internationally recognised ‘healthy prison’ standards, which focus on the specific areas of safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement.

“Inspectors found Maghaberry was not performing sufficiently well in the areas of respect and resettlement, and was performing poorly in the area of purposeful activity,” said Dame Anne Owers, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales.

“Maghaberry Prison was also found to be ‘performing poorly’ in the crucial area of safety — one of only three out of the 169 establishments inspected by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons since April 2005 to receive this assessment,” Dame Owers added. Inspectors found that at the time of the inspection there was no local suicide or self-harm policy for the prison, little therapeutic support for some very vulnerable men and poor monitoring procedures in place for those at risk. They also found that not enough attention was paid to anti-bullying and investigating violent incidents and that the Standby Search Team within the prison still had too forceful a presence and its activities were not subject to sufficient independent monitoring.