Holloway Prison to close and be sold off for housing | London Evening Standard (original) (raw)
Holloway Prison - the largest women's jail in western Europe - is set to close.
The historic prison, which has been branded "inadequate" by inspectors, will be sold off to make way for housing.
The Victorian jail was originally built as a mixed-sex prison in 1852, before becoming the first women's prison in England in 1902.
George Osborne said female prisoners would serve their sentences in "more humane" conditions in future, as he announced a number of other Victorian jails would be sold in order to help pay for nine new prisons.
- Holloway has an operational capacity of 501 inmates.
- It was completely rebuilt between 1971 and 1985, and few of its original Victorian features remain
- Holloway has a symbolic role in the history of women's rights in the UK, as it is where many of the suffragettes were imprisoned
- Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the UK, was detained in Holloway before she was hanged for murder in 1955
- Economist Vicky Pryce was held in Holloway in 2013 for perverting the course of justice after she accepted speeding points on behalf of her husband Chris Huhne
The government has said that once the reforms are complete, the running costs of prisons will be reduced by £80 million a year.
Inspectors who last visited the prison concluded it was "a very difficult establishment to run", while in a written statement, Justice Secretary Michael Gove described the jail as "inadequate and antiquated", saying Holloway's "design and physical state" did not provide the more suitable environment for rehabilitating offenders and keeping them away from crime.
However, the Prison Governors Association (PGA) said the association had "major concerns" about the move to close Holloway.
A spokesperson said: "The PGA has not been consulted on this decision and it leaves us with some major concerns as to the capacity within the female estate,"
Former inmates include Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst and other members of the suffragettes, aristocrat Diana Mosley, and mass murderers Myra Hindley and Rose West.