HM Prison Norwich is a Category B/C multi-functional

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, corre ...

for adult and juvenile males, located on

Mousehold Heath Mousehold Heath is a freely accessible area of heathland and woodland which lies to the north-east of the medieval city boundary of Norwich, in eastern England. The name also refers to the much larger area of open heath that once extended f ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

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.

History

Norwich opened as a prison in 1887, on the site of the Britannia Barracks (the former home of the

Royal Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

). The prison has had a variety of roles over the years, but today acts as a prison for Category B & C inmates. The impressive barrack block which stood behind the facade served as a Category C prison for some years from the 1970s but was demolished in the 1980s and replaced by a modern Category B prison block. The Victorian prison which stands at the end of Knox Road behind the old Barracks site was built in the mid-19th century as part of the reformation of the penal system brought about by the great prison reformers of that time. These included

Elizabeth Fry Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney; 21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845), sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the tr ...

. In January 2003 a report from

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector 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 inspe ...

severely criticised Norwich Prison for factors including poor cleanliness and the failure of its anti-drug and anti-bullying programmes. The report also criticised the lack of work and education opportunities at the jail for inmates. In November 2004 the

Prison Reform Trust The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) was founded in 1981 in London, England, by a small group of prison reform campaigners who were unhappy with the direction in which the Howard League for Penal Reform was heading, concentrating more on community punis ...

criticised levels of overcrowding at Norwich Prison. The trust stated that nearly half of all single cells at the jail here holding two prisoners, and inmates were spending too much time locked up in their cells. At around this time Norwich became the only prison in England and Wales to have a unit exclusively for elderly male prisoners (mainly serving life sentences). This has meant that a number of high-profile elderly prisoners have been held at HMP Norwich in recent years.

The prison today

The site is divided into various wings and units which house different facilities and categories of prisoners: * Wing A1 - Induction Wing * Wing A2 - Induction Wing * Wing A3 - Induction Wing * Wing A4 - Induction Wing * Wing A5 - Induction Wing * Wing A6 - Induction Wing * Wing B1 - Category B & C prisoners * Wing B2 - Category B & C prisoners * Wing B3 - Category B & C prisoners * Wing C1 - Sex offenders & vulnerable prisoners * Wing C2 - Sex offenders & vulnerable prisoners * Wing C3 - Sex offenders & vulnerable prisoners * Wing D - Britannia House (Category D prisoners) * Wing E - Older prisoner Wing (Category B & C) * Wing F - Local discharge unit (Category C) * Wing G - Local discharge unit (Category C) * Wing H - Healthcare Centre * Wing L - Elderly prisoners (mainly serving

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...

s) * Wing M - Category C prisoners with 24 months or less to serve Education provision for inmates at Norwich Prison is mainly centred on basic and key skills. Other courses offered include ESOL, Food Hygiene,

First Aid First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery. It includes initial in ...

, Health and Safety,

NVQ National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are practical work-based awards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that are achieved through assessment and training. The regulatory framework supporting NVQs was withdrawn in 2015 and replaced by the ...

Catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major services be ...

Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

and

Craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pro ...

and pre-release work programmes. A number of workshop places are available across the prison for inmates including Printing, Textiles, Contract packing Services and Gardens. Other facilities at the prison include a

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational i ...

and a multi-faith

chaplaincy A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intel ...

. There is also a Prison Visitor Centre which is operated by the

Ormiston Children and Families Trust Ormiston Trust is a charitable trust based in London, England. It is a grant-making trust that chiefly assists schools and organisations supporting children and young people. The trust was established in the memory of Fiona Ormiston Murray who d ...

. On 4 May 2016, ITV broadcast ''Her Majesty's Prison: Norwich''. The documentary records the daily life of the inmates and their families.

Notable former inmates

Reggie Kray Ronald Kray (24 October 193317 March 1995) and Reginald Kray (24 October 19331 October 2000) were identical twin brothers, gangsters and convicted criminals. They were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in the East End of London, Engl ...

* Anthony Sawoniuk *

Ronnie Biggs Ronald Arthur Biggs (8 August 1929 – 18 December 2013) was an English criminal who helped plan and carry out the Great Train Robbery of 1963. He subsequently became notorious for his escape from prison in 1965, living as a fugitive for 36 ye ...

Donald Neilson Donald Neilson (born Donald Nappey; 1 August 1936 – 18 December 2011), alias the “Black Panther,” was a British armed robber, kidnapper, and multiple murderer. From 1971, he committed a series of robberies of sub-post offices; in 197 ...

References

External links

Ministry of Justice pages on HMP Norwich
{{Prisons in the East of England

Buildings and structures in Norwich 1887 establishments in England