Overcrowding, inaction over deaths in custody, staff shortages and inadequate support for foreign national prisoners are problems still plaguing HMP Wandsworth, according to the latest report by the prison inspectorate.

The prison, in Heathfield Road, faced an unannounced inspection between February 23 and March 6 in 2015. 

The report found that HMP Wandsworth had taken insufficient action to address the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman's recommendations following deaths in the prison, particularly self-inflicted deaths.

There were 11 deaths in HMP Wandsworth in 2014, including that of Robert Richards, 22, who was found unresponsive in his cell at the end of July just two days before he was due to be sentenced for raping and trying to murder a woman in her 70s.

July 19: Date finally set for inquest into Wandsworth Prison death of Chessington rapist Robert Richards

July 19: Drugs, lack of exercise and understaffing makes High Down 'unacceptably violent and dangerous', says government's chief prison inspector Peter Clarke​

The report also comments on the overcrowding in the prison, with 1,630 men in cells designed for 963 at the time of the inspection, and notes problems with prisoners getting to see visitors.

The report states: "While such overcrowding made their lives difficult, there had been improvements to the living accommodation and its cleanliness. However, conditions in some prisons were very poor.

"The visits booking system was in disarray, and prisoners and visitors said that they had considerable difficulty in booking visits.

"There was a backlog of over 1,000 emails to the visits bookings team and yet there were still vacancies for visits during the inspection and for the following weekend."

Staff number problems have also been a problem for the prison, and it is operating with a constant rate of understaffing.

Nearly 300 low to medium risk prisoners in HMP Wandsworth had not been assigned an offender supervisor because staff numbers were so low.

According to the prison inspectorate: "Reductions in staff numbers had greatly reduced the capacity of officers to engage constructively with prisoners; many staff expressed frustration with this situation, and prisoners mostly understood it.

"In some local prisons, such as Liverpool, Pentonville and Wandsworth, prisoners who were unemployed or on the basic regime had as little as one hour a day unlocked. We routinely found over 30 per cent of prisoners locked up during core day activity periods.

"At Wandsworth, exercise periods were unpredictable in length, and sometimes less than half an hour."

Two out of five prisoners are foreign nationals and the report found there was not enough support for them, with prisoners relying on others to make themselves understood.

The report states: "At Wandsworth, we found an appropriate range of offending behaviour programmes, and the prison had applied to introduce the Resolve programme, which aims to reduce violence in medium-risk offenders."

June 16: Inside HMP Wandsworth: our reporter's look behind bars at life in Britain's biggest prison

June 14: 'We are responsible for our own destiny': HMP Wandsworth governor talks recruitment and budgets as trailblazer prison is given autonomy

Since the inspection, HMP Wandsworth has become one of the government's trailblazer prisons, and accepted autonomy, meaning it can now create its own policies and systems in the prison and create its own contracts with suppliers.

Chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke said: "I have found that the grim situation referred to by Nick Hardwick in his report last year has not improved, and in some key areas it has, if anything, become even worse.

"What I have seen is that despite the sterling efforts of many who work in the Prison Service at all levels, there is a simple and unpalatable truth about far too many of our prisons.

"They have become unacceptably violent and dangerous places."

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "This report is clear evidence of why prisons need reform and why the agenda that was led by Michael Gove should be re-doubled under the new Secretary of State, Elizabeth Truss."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We take a zero tolerance approach to drugs in our prisons and use sniffer dogs, cell searches and mandatory drugs tests to find them.

"We have already legislated to make smuggling New Psychoactive Substances into prison illegal and those caught trying to throw packages over prison walls can now face up to two years in jail.

"However we must do more, which is why we are investing £1.3 billion to transform the prison estate, to better support rehabilitation and tackle bullying, violence and drugs."

The governor of HMP Wandsworth, Ian Bickers, has been contacted for comment.