HM Prison Cardiff (Welsh: ) is a Category B men's

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 in the

Adamsdown Adamsdown ( cy, Waunadda or ) is an inner city area and community in the south of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Adamsdown is generally located between Newport Road, to the north and the mainline railway to the south. The area includes C ...

area of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. 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

By 1814, the existing

Cardiff Gaol Cardiff Gaol was a prison located on St. Mary Street, Cardiff, Wales. Prior to its construction, people were imprisoned in Cardiff Castle. Background Cardiff's original court and gaol were located within the walls of Cardiff Castle. Whilst th ...

was deemed insufficient for coping with both the scale of demand and quality of building to cope with the quickly expanding industrial town, and so proposals were made to build a new county jail for Glamorgan. Construction commenced in 1827, and the new stone building located south of

Crockherbtown Cardiff city centre ( cy, Canol Dinas Caerdydd) is the city centre and central business district of Cardiff, Wales. The area is tightly bound by the River Taff to the west, the Civic Centre to the north and railway lines and two railway sta ...

opened at the end of 1832, capable of housing 80 prisoners, including 20 debtors. The three Victorian wings of Cardiff Prison underwent a major refurbishment programme in 1996, and the prison’s capacity was extended by the commissioning of three new wings (C, D and E), with the number of places for life-sentenced prisoners increased also. In 1997 Cardiff Prison was criticised for chaining sick inmates to their hospital beds after a probe into the death of one of Cardiff's prisoners. Three years later one of Cardiff's Assistant Governors was found dead after an investigation into

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...

. The manager had been arrested at the prison days earlier by detectives investigating the alleged misuse of a personal computer. Cardiff Prison was criticised in 2001 for its cell-share policy in the wake of an inmate's death. Prison officials were advised to carry out full checks on prisoners on their arrival, to prevent violent or even fatal incidents from occurring. A year later the prison was criticised again for its poor record in dealing with drug abuse and providing decent recreation facilities for inmates.

Execution site

A total of 20 judicial

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

s took place at Cardiff prison. The condemned prisoners were

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

for the crime of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. Their names, ages and dates of execution are: * William Lacey, 29 yrs, 21 August 1900 * Eric Lange, 30 yrs, 21 December 1904 * Rhoda Wills, 44 yrs, 14 August 1907 (female) * George Stills, 30 yrs, 13 December 1907 * Patrick Collins, 24 yrs, 30 December 1908 * Hugh McLaren, 29 yrs, 14 August 1913 * Edgar Bindon, 19 yrs, 25 March 1914 * Alec Bakerlis, 24 yrs, 10 April 1917 * Thomas Caler, 23 yrs, 14 April 1920 * Lester Hamilton, 25 yrs, 16 August 1921 * George Thomas, 26 yrs, 9 March 1926 * Edward Rowlands, 40 yrs, 27 January 1928 * Daniel Driscoll, 34 yrs, 27 January 1928 * William John Corbett, 32 yrs, 12 August 1931 * George Roberts, 29 yrs, 8 August 1940 * Howard Joseph Grossley, 37 yrs, 5 September 1945 (an

AWOL Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or Military base, post without permission (a Pass (military), pass, Shore leave, liberty or Leave (U.S. military), leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with u ...

Canadian soldier) * Evan Hadyn Evans, 22 yrs, 3 February 1948 * Clifford Wills, 31 yrs, 9 December 1948 * Ajit Singh, 27 yrs, 7 May 1952 * Mahmood Mattan, 28 yrs, 3 September 1952 (conviction quashed in February 1998) The remains of executed prisoners were buried in

unmarked grave An unmarked grave is one that lacks a marker, headstone, or nameplate indicating that a body is buried there. However, in cultures that mark burial sites, the phrase unmarked grave has taken on a metaphorical meaning. Metaphorical meaning As a f ...

s within the prison walls, as was customary. In late 2003, after

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

had been abolished in the UK, the remains of Corbett, Roberts, Grossley, Evans, Wills and Singh were exhumed from the prison grounds and reburied elsewhere in order to make space for the construction of a new cell block. The precise location of the new cell block is . The remains of Mahmood Mattan (executed in 1952 but cleared of murder in 1998) had previously been exhumed from the same location for reburial in 1996. Mattan is now buried in the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

section of Western Cemetery, Cardiff. His tombstone bears the epitaph "Killed by Injustice". After Mattan's conviction was quashed, his widow Laura and three sons (David, Omar and Mervyn) received the sum of £725,000 in compensation from the British Government.

The prison today

Cardiff Prison accepts male adult prisoners remanded into custody who are drawn predominantly from the surrounding court catchment area of South Wales. In addition Cardiff also houses sentenced Category B and C prisoners. Cardiff’s regime includes full-time education, employment in the prison workshops, and training courses. There is a resettlement unit that offers prisoners various offending behaviour programmes and work based courses, and a Detoxification Unit accommodating 50 prisoners. In 1999 the actor Keith Allen played a

Probation and Parole officer A probation and parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probati ...

at the prison, in the

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television series ''

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''.

Notable former inmates

John Straffen John Thomas Straffen (27 February 1930 – 19 November 2007) was a British serial killer who was the longest-serving prisoner in British history. After killing two young girls in the summer of 1951, he was found unfit to plead at trial and commi ...

References

External links

Ministry of Justice pages on HMP CardiffHMP Cardiff – HM Inspectorate of Prisons Reports
{{Prisons in Wales Adamsdown

1832 establishments in Wales