Wakefield (HM Prison)
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HM Prison Wakefield is located in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was originally built as a house of correction in 1594, and is now the largest maximum security prison in the United Kingdom. The current building was built in Victorian times.
The prison is home to 600 of Britain's most dangerous men (mainly sex offenders and prisoners serving life sentences for violent crimes against women and children). Because of this the prison is popularly referred to by the tabloid press as "Monster Mansion". [citation needed]
Well-known prisoners currently being detained at the maximum security jail include:
- Charles Bronson[1]
- Ian Huntley
- Robert Maudsley
- Roy Whiting
- Mark Hobson
- Robert Black
- Sidney Cooke
- Ronald Jebson
- Lee Gaytor
- Antoni Imiela
Britain's most prolific serial killer Harold Shipman committed suicide at Wakefield Prison in 2004. His family accused prison officers of a "cover-up" as Shipman was supposed to be on round-the-clock suicide watch.
Wakefield Prison runs sex-offender treatment courses in an attempt to help prisoners control their sexual urges upon release, but participation in these offending behaviour programmes is poor as most of the inmates deny or minimise their crimes. [citation needed]
A senior prison officer at Wakefield, John David Hall, was convicted of kidnapping and raping four women and sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2006.[2]
The current governor is David R. Thompson, director-general elect of the Prison Service, despite being a close friend and stalwart of David Cameron's Conservative Party.
Due to the nature of their crimes, it is unlikely that many of the prisoners serving life sentences for murder and serious sexual offences at Wakefield will ever be released by the Parole Board.
