Shrewsbury (HM Prison)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HM Prison Shrewsbury is a current operational prison based in the town of Shrewsbury, county town of Shropshire, in the United Kingdom.
The prison is located on Howard Street, near to Shrewsbury railway station, and is near to the site of the Dana Gaol (where a medieval prison once stood before the railway station was built). The name The Dana is used now for the bridge over the railway station and the footpath which links this bridge with Castle Gates, in the town centre. However, The Dana is a name still used for the prison itself.
A report in 2005 named Shrewsbury prison as the most overcrowded in England and Wales. The building is very old (Victorian mostly) and has little room nearby to expand. It is bordered by the River Severn, Shrewsbury railway station, a residential area and the railway station's car park. There are currently no proposals to relocate the prison.
The prison, according to Home Office figures, is the only one in England and Wales operating above what is described as its maximum safe overcrowding level. Designed to house just 182 inmates during June 2005, when the prison figures where compiled, it was housing 302 inmates.
HMP Shrewsbury is a Category C (?) Prison (using the UK classification system).
