HM Prison The Weare was a prison ship berthed in Portland Harbour in Dorset, England.
The UK established The Weare in 1997 as a temporary measure to ease prison overcrowding. Weare was docked at the disused Royal Navy dockyard at the Isle of Portland. On 9 March 2005, it was announced that The Weare was to close mainly due to costly running and being unnecessary.
Among the options about what to do with the ship were moving it to London or sinking it in Portland Harbour or around the Isle of Portland as a man-made reef and as a diving location.
Inmates of HMP Weare included Dan Treacy, of the UK new-wave band Television Personalities, who was incarcerated from 1998 to June 2004 for a drug-related offence.
There was one recorded break-out in 2003 when an inmate reportedly "jumped over the wall" and escaped. The escapee was named as one Dave Beach from Guildford Surrey, he escaped by jumping from the ship somehow and swimming to the shore. He was found by walkers who apparently paid for a taxi for him. He was caught in Guildford some months later.
|
||||||||||