INDEPENDENT watchdogs have praised staff at Blakenhurst prison for making good progress in the face of difficult circumstances, which have included a number of suicides.

The report, carried out by the Independent Monitoring Board, has special praise for a resettlement initiative that it recommends should be extended to the nearby women's prison at Brockhill.

But board members are concerned about an increase in the number of attacks on staff at the prison near Bromsgrove, which at 25 in the first four months of this year compares with 27 for the whole of 2003.

They are also worried about the problems of mentally ill prisoners in a prison described by a visiting consultant as holding "a more toxic mix of mentally ill and personality disordered prisoners than are held in his secure wards."

During the year under review, three prisoners died in Blakenhurst and the watchdog group is worried that the prison is holding an increasing number of "seriously mentally disturbed" inmates.

The watchdogs are keeping under review measures to improve the situation which include putting more prison officers in the hospital wing in order to reduce pressure on medical staff.

They are also worried about delays in dealing with detainees by the Immigration Service and the legality of keeping such people in a local prison with few facilities to assist them in progressing their cases.

The Independent Monitoring Board says that the governor and senior management team has worked well during a difficult period and comment that constant bad press both locally and nationally has not been good for staff morale.