HM Prison Albany is a Category B men's prison, situated on the outskirts of Newport on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

, England. The prison is operated by

His Majesty's Prison Service His Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) is a part of HM Prison and Probation Service (formerly the National Offender Management Service), which is the part of His Majesty's Government charged with managing most of the prisons within England and Wale ...

. Albany is located next to Parkhurst, another Male/B prison and together they form

HM Prison Isle of Wight HMP Isle of Wight is a super prison on the Isle of Wight, UK, combining the two island prisons, Albany and Parkhurst. On 1 April 2009, the two prisons (along with Camp Hill which closed in 2013) were merged with each site retaining their old ...

History

Albany was designed and built as a Category C Training Prison in the early 1960s occupying the site of Albany Barracks. Soon after opening in 1967, a decision was taken to upgrade Albany to a Category B prison and, in 1970, Albany became part of the dispersal system. It suffered major disturbances in 1972 which closed most of the Prison for over a year. In 1992, Albany was redesignated as a Category B Closed Training Prison. In January 1998 Albany changed from being half Vulnerable Prisoner Unit and half Normal Location, and is now exclusively used to house

sex offenders A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crime ...

and vulnerable prisoners. Albany also operates as an Assessment Centre for the core Sex Offender Treatment Programme. In August 2001 spikes (designed to stop birds perching) had to be removed from the exterior of Albany Prison after it was discovered that some of the spikes were coming loose. Prison Officers feared that inmates could use the spikes as a weapon against them. In March 2006 the kitchen providing meals to inmates at Albany prison was awarded a five-star rating for kitchen hygiene by the environmental health department of the

Isle of Wight Council The Isle of Wight Council is a unitary authority covering the Isle of Wight, an island in the south of England. It is currently made up of 39 seats. Since the 2021 election, there has been an 'Alliance' coalition administration of Independents, ...

. The inspection of kitchens at 1,900 premises on the Isle of Wight, including schools, church halls, cafes and restaurants found Albany to have a top rating in standards of food preparation, ahead of establishments such as the

Royal Yacht Squadron The Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) is a British yacht club. Its clubhouse is Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. Member yachts are given the suffix RYS to their names, and are permitted (with the appropriate warrant) to we ...

club. In May 2006 up to 60 prisoners at Albany Prison issued writs demanding compensation from the Home Office. The inmates demanded compensation because they were prevented from using the lavatory when security checks were being carried out. In 2009, Albany joined

HM Prison Parkhurst HM Prison Parkhurst is a Category B men's prison situated in Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Parkhurst prison is one of the two formerly separate prisons that today make up HMP Isle of Wight, the othe ...

to form super prison

, with each site retaining their old names. In May 2010 a man dressed as

Snoopy Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. He can also be found in all of the ''Peanuts'' films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of the most recog ...

and an accomplice attempted to enter the Albany site, trying to free a prisoner. The pistol the costumed man carried was a

water gun A water gun (or water pistol, water blaster, or squirt gun) is a type of toy gun designed to shoot jets of water. Similar to water balloons, the primary purpose of the toy is to soak another person in a recreational game such as water fight. ...

. The person the men were trying to free was located in the Camp Hill unit.

1972 disturbances

The UK prisoners Union

Preservation of the Rights of Prisoners Preservation of the Rights of Prisoners (PROP) was a prisoners' rights organisation set up in the early 1970s in the United Kingdom, which organised more than one hundred prison demonstrations, strikes and protests. Formation In the first five mont ...

had been founded on 11 May 1972. It had started organising peaceful protests in prisons across England. There were five protests between 11 and 13 June, including one in Albany. On 4 August there was an England-wide prison strike involving 10,000 prisoners, i.e. 25% of the total prison population. This included Albany. The Prison Officers Association found this disturbing. By the week of 21 August they had issued a six-point policy document called ''Get Tough''. However Prison Officers in Albany rejected this as not being strong enough and demanded stricter punishments for ''every'' infringement of the regulations. This was backed up by threat of a

work-to-rule Work-to-rule (also known as an Italian strike, in Italian: ''Sciopero bianco'', or Slowdown in US usag is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract or job, and strictly follow time-cons ...

and

overtime ban Overtime bans are a type of strike in which workers refuse to engage in overtime work, being any work that falls outside of contracted hours. They do this to leverage their employer into negotiating various working conditions. Often organised in u ...

if their demands were not met by 13 September. Further prison officers provided stories for the media of a "mafia-style" organisation amongst high-profile long term prisoners. Several were named: Charles Kray, Robert Welch,

John Duddy John Francis Duddy (born 19 June 1979) is an Irish actor and former professional boxer who fought from 2003 to 2010. He challenged once for the vacant WBC Silver middleweight title, losing in his final fight to Julio César Chávez Jr.

Ian Brady The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward E ...

and

Ray Morris Ray Morris (1908-1933) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s and 1930s. A New South Wales representative three-quarter back, he played his club football in Sydney for Western Suburbs (with whom he won t ...

. A deputation of Police Officers met with Governor, and shortly afterwards the Governor organised a lock-up and search of the entire prison, citing fears of a mass escape as the reason.

Current status

Albany holds Category B/C

and vulnerable prisoners. Accommodation at Albany Prison comprises six wings (House Blocks 11–17), as well as a separate induction unit and an 18 bed inpatient healthcare unit. All wings are identical and hold prisoners in single cells with in-cell but no toilet or sink. On each landing there are communal recesses housing toilets and wash basins. There are also payphones on each wing, and one TV room within each wing.

Notable inmates

Gary Glitter Paul Francis Gadd (born 8 May 1944), best known by his stage name Gary Glitter, is an English former singer, songwriter, and record producer. He achieved success during the glam rock era of the 1970s and 1980s, and his career ended after he w ...

, served from 2015 to 2018. *

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

-based businessman and serial child rapist

William Goad William Goad (12 July 1944 – 20 October 2012) was a British millionaire businessman from Plymouth, Devon, who was imprisoned for life for child rape. He was called in various newspapers "Britain's most prolific paedophile",Ministry of Justice pages on HMP Albany

HMP Albany - HM Inspectorate of Prisons Reports
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albany (Hm Prison) Prisons on the Isle of Wight Category B prisons in England Category C prisons in England 1967 establishments in England Newport, Isle of Wight Men's prisons Dispersal prisons