A new role is being recommended for a North-East jail which is difficult to run effectively, because of confusion over its precise function.

That's at the centre of a report on Stockton's Holme House Prison by Anne Owers, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons.

Government inspectors are "concerned by Holme House's apparently confused role''.

Officially, it is a local prison receiving unsentenced adult and young adult remand prisoners directly from court, as well as prisoners transferred from overcrowding jails like Durham Prison.

But, in reality more than 85 percent of its population have already been sentenced by the courts, and require the activities and opportunities of a category C training prison which the Teesside jail does not provide and so Holme House's performance suffers accordingly.

Anne Owers recommends a new role for the prison - but one which will need the injection of fresh capital.

She said: "Holme House could be developed into a community prison for Teesside and North Yorkshire. This will require capital investment, to provide education and training opportunities, and a focus on developing links with local community, housing and employment resources. That would provide benefits both for Holme House's prisoners, and for the community it serves."

Her inspection team were pleased to find improvements at Holme House where, before the last, unannounced, inspection two years ago, there was one major disturbance and five deaths in custody.

This latest inspection found " that safety and confidence had largely been restored and a consistent, well-ordered regime established for prisoners.''

Specific concerns raised by the inspection included: * Few prisoners getting out of their cells for 10 hours a day or more * A severe backlog in sentence planning; * Insufficient activities; * Underdeveloped resettlement; * Little in place to ensure attention to the needs of foreign nationals * Inadequate bail information available. On the plus side, the inspectors found "a largely safe and well-ordered environment'' well-managed self-harm and suicide prevention processes, with most recommendations from investigations into deaths in custody achieved.

The prison's detoxification and healthcare facilities are described as "excellent'', with good relationships between prisoners and staff, especially PE staff, and increased prisoner confidence in race relations management.

Phil Wheatley, Director General of the Prison Service said: "Holme House has made good progress over the last two years and staff should be congratulated. The fact that the prison has been recognised as a largely safe and well-ordered environment is a credit to everyone involved.

"Since the Inspector's report a foreign national prisoner policy plan has been published and two new staff roles for this area have been filled.

"Holme House continues to strive to improve the variety and scale of education, work and training opportunities available to prisoners.

"Ongoing work is being taken forward with a variety of local agencies through the North East Resettlement Strategy and Holme House's local plans to focus resources on better equipping prisoners to find employment and accommodation on release in order to reduce reoffending by on release."