List of prisons in the United Kingdom is a list of all 141 current prisons as of 2022 in the United Kingdom spread across the three UK legal systems of
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...
(122 prisons),
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, (15 prisons) and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
(4 prisons). Also included are a number of historical
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 ...
s no longer in current use. ALL prisons are cat b prisons but some hold cat A and AA PRISONERS
Prisons, Prison Services, Prison Population and Prisoner Categories
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Public Sector prisons in England and Wales are managed 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 ...
(HMPS), which is part of the
His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service
His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) responsible for the correctional services in England and Wales. It was created in 2004 as the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) by combin ...
, an executive agency of the United Kingdom government. In addition, since the 1990s the day-to-day running of a number of previously existing prisons, as well as several new facilities, has been "contracted out" to private companies, such as
Serco
Serco Group plc is a British company with headquarters based in Hook, Hampshire, England. Serco primarily derives income as a contractor for the provision of government services, most prominently in the sectors of health, transport, justice, i ...
and
G4S
G4S is a British Multinational corporation, multinational private security company headquartered in London, England. The company was set up in 2004 when London-based Securicor amalgamated with Danish firm Group 4 Falck. The company offers a ran ...
.
All prisons in England and Wales, whether publicly or privately run, are inspected by
His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons
His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons is the head of HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the senior inspector of prisons, young offender institutions and immigration service detention and removal centres in England and Wales. The current chief insp ...
.
Prisons in Scotland are run by the
Scottish Prison Service
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is an executive agency of the Scottish Government tasked with managing prisons and Young Offender Institutions.
The Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, currently Teresa Medhurst, is responsible fo ...
and prisons in Northern Ireland are run by the
Northern Ireland Prison Service
The Northern Ireland Prison Service is an executive agency of the Department of Justice, the headquarters of which are in Dundonald House in the Stormont Estate in Belfast.
Background
It was established as an agency on 1 April 1995. Agency ...
.
There are also
Immigration Removal Centres run by the Home Office.
The following tables below list all current and some historical prisons and
Young Offender Institution
In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile de ...
s in use in the three UK legal systems of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as of 2022. The majority house adult males, and are operated by each legal systems respective public prison service, although a small number are operated by private prison companies. There are also a small number of adult female prisons and youth prisons/secure children's units for those under 18.
Population
As of 2021, the total prison population of the UK (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined) stands at roughly 87,000, one of the largest in the Western world. With the increasing population, law changes resulting in longer prison sentences and a national government prison building program to build 20,000 more prison spaces by the mid 2020's the total UK prison population is expected to increase to almost 110,000 by 2026.
United Kingdom Prisoner Categories and Establishment Types
In the UK adult prisoners are divided into 4 security categories (though male and female categories are slightly different) depending on certain factors such as the offences they have been convicted or accused of, their likelihood of attempting an escape, the threat they would pose if they escaped, their length of sentence, and any of their previous criminal convictions, if any. Male categories are as follows,
Category A – 'Those whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public or national security'. Typically for example those convicted of offences such as murder, manslaughter, terrorism, rape, wounding with intent (GBH), robbery, serious firearm and explosives offences, offences against the state, those sentenced under the
Official Secrets Act
An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security but in unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secrets Act 1911) can include all infor ...
, or any attempts of those offences. There are a total of ten Category A prisons in the UK, eight are located in England and Wales, one in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland.
HM Prison Belmarsh
His Majesty's Prison Belmarsh is a Category-A men's prison in Thamesmead, south-east London, England. The prison is used in high-profile cases, particularly those concerning national security. Within the prison grounds there is a unique unit ca ...
is an example of a Category A prison. They are the equivalent of a supermax/maximum security prison in the United States for example.
Category B – 'Those who do not require maximum security, but for whom escape still needs to be made very difficult'. Typically for those convicted of the same types offences as category A prisoners, but who are not judged to be as high risk or those who have served a long time as a category A prisoner with good behaviour/rehabilitation are sometimes downgraded to category B.
HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs
HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs (nicknamed "The Scrubs") is a Category B men's local prison, located opposite Hammersmith Hospital and W12 Conferences on Du Cane Road in the White City in West London, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's ...
is an example of a Category B prison. They are the equivalent of a medium security prison in the United States for example.
Category C – 'Those who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to try to escape'. Typically for those convicted of minor offences and who are serving shorter sentences no more than a few years in length. Also category B prisoners coming to the end of their sentence are sometimes downgraded to category C to prepare them for release.
HM Prison Berwyn
HM Prison Berwyn ( cy, Carchar Berwyn EF; ) is a £250 million Category C adult male prison in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It is the largest prison in the UK, opened in 2017, and is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.
Name
The gaol ...
is an example of a Category C prison. They are the equivalent of a minimum security prison in the United States for example.
Category D – 'Those who can be reasonably trusted not to try to escape, and are given the privilege of an open prison'. Category D prisoners are held in "Open Prisons" in which they are trusted to be able to move freely around the prison without risk and who after completing a risk assessment may be allowed to work outside of the prison in the community or allowed short home visits for a set number of hours a week. Also category C prisoners coming to the end of their sentence are sometimes downgraded to category D to prepare them for release.
HM Prison Ford
HM Prison Ford (informally known as Ford Open Prison) is a Category D men's prison, located at Ford, in West Sussex, England, near Arundel and Littlehampton. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.
Air Force and Navy use
The ...
is an example of a Category D prison. They are the equivalent of a minimum security work release prison or local jail in the United States for example.
Adult women in England and Wales are categorised with four slightly different types of security levels, from lowest to highest being Open, Closed, Restricted Status and Category A '. However Category A for women is rarely used due to the fairly low number of women being held for such serious offences, meaning most are held either in Closed or Restricted Status conditions. Northern Ireland operates a similar system to England and Wales. Scotland operates a separate three category system, from lowest to highest being Low, Medium and High Supervision (High Supervision being similar to Category A for adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland).
Additionally whereas males and females aged 18 or over are held in dedicated adult prisons, those under 18 (and sometimes under 21) are held in one of three types of establishments across the country that are run by either the public prison service, private companies (such as G4S or Serco), local council authorities and in rare cases some charity providers. They are,
Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) which are prison based establishments very similar to adult prisons that hold those convicted and remanded for offences but that only hold males aged 15-20 (ages 15-17 and ages 18-20 are housed separately) and who are not classed as vulnerable.
Secure Training Centres (STCs) which are secure custody establishments but that focus more on things such as education, welfare, health and support rather than traditional prison style punishment. They hold convicted males aged 12-14 and females aged 12–17 in separate accommodation. Though males aged 15-17 can be held also if they are classed as vulnerable.
Secure Children's Homes (SCHs) which are similar to STC's in that they mainly focus on things like education, welfare, health and support rather than traditional prison style punishment. They hold very young males and females aged 10–11 convicted or remanded usually for only serious offences. Though males and females aged 12-14 can be held also if they are classed as vulnerable. Additionally males and females all the way up to the age of 17 can be held if they are refused bail and remanded (but not yet convicted) to be held by local children's authorities (and not the prison service) usually if they are more vulnerable, at risk or a YOI is not suitable. It should also be noted that not all children held in SCHs have necessarily been convicted, remanded or accused of crimes, some are held by court orders on safety grounds under legislation such as the
Children Act 1989
The Children Act 1989 is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which allocates duties to local authorities, courts, parents, and other agencies in the United Kingdom, to ensure children are safeguarded and their welfare is promoted. It centres on th ...
due to things like their history of absconding from regular open children's care homes, risk of committing harm to themselves or others, or those at high risk of vulnerability from things such as forms of abuse, illicit drugs use and child prostitution.
More can be found here:
Prisoner security categories in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, prisoners are divided into four categories of security. Each adult is assigned a category, depending on the crime committed, the sentence, the risk of escape, and violent tendencies. The categories are single letters, in a ...
.
Prisons and Young Offender Institutions
HMP The Verne is now acting as a public sector category C prison.
Former prisons
Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Prison Service)
The following table lists the three active prisons in Northern Ireland. All three are operated by the
Northern Ireland Prison Service
The Northern Ireland Prison Service is an executive agency of the Department of Justice, the headquarters of which are in Dundonald House in the Stormont Estate in Belfast.
Background
It was established as an agency on 1 April 1995. Agency ...
. There is also a Juvenile Justice Centre, located in Bangor, County Down, which is operated by the
Youth Justice Agency
The Department of Justice (Irish: ''An Roinn Dlí agus Cirt'', Ulster-Scots: ''Männystrie o tha Laa'') is a government department in the Northern Ireland Executive, which was established on 12 April 2010 as part of the devolution of justice m ...
. It is also used as a prison officer training centre.
Former prison
*
Maze
A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...
,
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
(also called Long Kesh) – closed 29 September 2000
Scotland (
Scottish Prison Service
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is an executive agency of the Scottish Government tasked with managing prisons and Young Offender Institutions.
The Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, currently Teresa Medhurst, is responsible fo ...
)
Former prisons
Future prisons
See also
*
United Kingdom prison population
*
Slopping out
Slopping out is the manual emptying of human waste when prison cells are unlocked in the morning. Inmates without a flush toilet in the cell have to use other means (formerly a chamber pot, then a bucket, now often a chemical toilet) while locked ...
References
External links
{{Commons category, Prisons in the United Kingdom
Find a prison– England and Wales
Scottish Prison ServiceNorthern Ireland Prison ServiceIndividual histories of Britain's prisons on theprison.org.uk
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
Prisons
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, correcti ...
Prisons
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, correcti ...