The prison inspectorate's report has been published a month after the Essex jail was condemned as "poor and cramped" by its board of visitors.

The jail was also described as "sick" and a "college for crime" in a government report published in November 2000.

Thursday's review says relations between staff and prisoners have improved.

However Neil Orr, the chairman of the board of visitors, told BBC Essex inmates still needed better access to education.

He said: "Unless one addresses this issue of sending them out better than they came in, you're going to get reoffending spiralling."