HMP Prison Drake Hall is a women's

closed Closed may refer to: Mathematics * Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set * Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points * Closed interval, ...

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

, located near the village of

Eccleshall Eccleshall is a town and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is located seven miles northwest of Stafford, and six miles west-southwest of Stone. Eccleshall is twinned with Sancerre in France. His ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. 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 ...

History

Formerly used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

by female munitions workers as a residence, then as a Teacher Training College. From January 1957 until August 1957, Drake Hall was used as temporary housing for hundreds of refugees from Egypt, who were expelled by Nasser following the shambles of the Suez Crisis of October 1956. The first inflow of refugees was on 7 January 1957. Most of the first occupiers were from Alexandria, Egypt. The building was repurposed in the 1960s as a male open prison. From 1974, Drake Hall has been used as a women's prison. In the mid-1990s, the prison was renovated. In 2002, it became a semi-open prison after a perimeter fence was constructed, but was re-designated a closed prison in March 2009. An open unit for prisoners nearing the end of their sentences was added in 2015. Inmates can work there in various roles including

personal trainers A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for apparently healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, p ...

, beauty therapists and call-centre assistants. Low risk prisoners are allowed to work in nearby towns.

The prison today

Drake Hall holds both adult and young offenders. It specialises in

foreign national A foreign national is any person (including an organization) who is not a national of a specific country. ("The term 'person' means an individual or an organization.") For example, in the United States and in its territories, a foreign national ...

prisoners and in resettlement. The prison's regime includes incentives, education, workshops, training courses, farms and gardens, a works department, and a gym. There are also voluntary and paid outwork programmes and a listener scheme.

Notable inmates

* Barbara Salisbury (formerly) – nurse convicted of the attempted murder of two elderly patients in order to "free up beds", was also charged but not convicted of other attempted murders/ murders of patients *

Jordan Worth Alexander Gerald Skeel (born 17 August 1994) is an English football coach and domestic violence survivor whose near-fatal abuse at the hands of his girlfriend, Jordan Worth (born 1995), attracted widespread media coverage owing to the extreme natu ...

(released in January 2022)

References

External links

Ministry of Justice pages on Drake Hall
Prisons in Staffordshire Drake Hall 1960s establishments in England Eccleshall {{UK-prison-stub