A female prisoner has been left in segregation in a "squalid" cell for more than five years, it has emerged.
The chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick, made the discovery during an unannounced visit to HMP Bronzefield near Ashford, Surrey, in April.
In the inspection report, Mr Hardwick said: "We were dismayed that the woman who had already been in the segregation unit for three years in 2010 was still there in 2013. Her cell was unkempt and squalid and she seldom left it."
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "This shocking case of treatment, which appears to amount to torture, in an English prison should shame ministers who tolerate the over-use of custody for women and consequent poor treatment."
Mr Hardwick added: "Although more activities had been organised for her and better multi-disciplinary support was available, she still had too little to occupy her. Her prolonged location on the segregation unit amounted to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment - and we use these words advisedly.
"The treatment and conditions of other women held for long periods in segregation was little better. Much of this was outside the prison's direct control and required a national strategy for meeting the needs of these very complex women - as exists in the male estate. However, Bronzefield itself needed to do more to ameliorate the worst effects of this national failure."
There are 446 women on remand or serving sentences ranging from a few weeks to life at the prison. It has a small number of "restricted status" women, some of whom have severe personality disorders.
It is not known what the woman was jailed for.
The report calls for a policy to help manage women "with complex needs who cannot be supported in the prison's normal location".
This should include providing a humane environment and regime for those women, as well as for restricted status women in this category, it says.
Ms Crook said: "Her Majesty's chief inspector is absolutely right that specialist care outside of the prison walls needs to be developed for the handful of women who pose particular challenges."
Mr Hardwick said: "This inspection took place while the Government was conducting a review of the women's custodial estate. HMP Bronzefield illustrates some of the challenges that review should address.
"It is a credit to the managers and staff at Bronzefield that they meet these challenges as well as they do. There is more that can be done locally, but some of the issues identified in this report require a fundamentally different approach to the imprisonment of women at national level."
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The Chief Inspector reports that staff are doing their best to respond to the needs of women at Bronzefield, many of whom are in poor mental and physical health, addicted to drugs and drink and traumatised by separation from their children.
"But why in this day and age are women with such complex needs transported like cattle and dumped in prison, where one of the most damaged women is left to rot in some form of solitary confinement for five years?
"We are quick to condemn cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of people in prison in other countries, now government must act to put right failings in our own women's justice system.
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