A KENT jail is one of only two in the country used exclusively for holding foreign offenders, a report by inspectors says.

Staff at Canterbury Prison have been praised for their handling of up to 60 different nationalities who are held in detention at any one time.

But members of the Independent Monitoring Board, which published the report, believe the prison is still over-crowded with around 280 inmates and delays in a building programme to ease the problem are damaging its mission.

Among the unique challenges faced by the prison is the "constant flow" of differing nationalities with more than 30 different languages spoken by detainees.

The aim of the prison is to provide a centre of excellence for foreign nationals dedicated to reducing re-offending and working with others to effect early removal, deportation or supported return to the community.

The report says the success of the prison's race and diversity policies should be commended.

But inspectors insist the delays in the building programme must be taken seriously and more thought needs to be given to providing offenders with suitably challenging work.