British prison guides

UK prisons: how to find someone, visit, and get official information

Britain does not publish a searchable nationwide inmate roster the way many US counties do. What families actually need is the right establishment, the official locator, and a visit booking that will not bounce at the gate. These pages are written prison by prison for that job. The United Kingdom is four prison services wearing one country URL: England and Wales under HMPPS, Scotland under SPS, Northern Ireland under NIPS.

How locating someone in a UK prison actually works

England and Wales use a consent-based service run by HM Prison and Probation Service. You submit a name and date of birth on GOV.UK. Staff will only tell you which prison holds the person if that person agrees. It is not a public mugshot board, and it is not instant. If the person has just been remanded from court, the record can lag a day while reception finishes the first-night process.

Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate prison services with their own phone lines and visit desks. A Glasgow family cannot use the England-and-Wales Find a prisoner form to check HMP Barlinnie. That split is why this site keeps UK nations in one country hub but never pretends there is a single British roster.

Once you know the establishment, every GOV.UK prison page lists the gate address, the social-visit booking number or online form, and the rules on ID, dress and what you can carry. Times change. We copy slots onto a prison page only when we have taken them from that official page; otherwise we send you to the source.

What each prison page on this site is for

Each UK guide is a facility article, not a copy of the country intro. It covers how that jail sits in the estate (local reception, high security, women’s, open, young offender), how families usually arrive, who runs the visitors’ centre, and which official buttons to press. There is no inmate table and no “who’s in today” feed.

If you are coming from the US side of CurrentPrisonList, the difference is legal as well as practical. County jails in America often post booking logs under state public-records law. The UK treats custody location as personal data. Publishing a scrape of who is behind the door would not just be poor journalism — it would be the wrong product.

Visits, money and staying in touch

Social visits in England and Wales are booked through the national prison-visits service or a prison-specific line. You must already be on the prisoner’s visitor list. At least one adult has to attend. Help with travel costs exists for people on certain benefits via the Assisted Prison Visits scheme.

Money goes through the official “send money to a prisoner” service — not a postal order, not a bank transfer to a wing. Email a Prisoner, in-cell PIN phones and the Prison Video app are the usual remote options. Each jail’s page notes the local quirks (Friday closed, wing-by-wing weekends, PACT or Jigsaw at the gate) when the official source spells them out.

How United Kingdom is carved up on this site

United Kingdom is a separate country folder — not a tab on a mixed European roster, and not a US state code. The analogue of a US state here is the first-level unit: Nations and regions. The United Kingdom is four prison services wearing one country URL: England and Wales under HMPPS, Scotland under SPS, Northern Ireland under NIPS. English regions (London, North West, West Midlands and the rest) are how families actually travel, not ceremonial counties. Wales is not a region of England on this site. Scotland is not a ‘north of England’ filter. Belfast is not a London listing. Open a nation or region page when you already know the slice of United Kingdom; stay on this hub when you need the national rules, the official locator, and the list of those units.

Local reception jails take court catch; high-security, women’s, YOI and open prisons sit on different GOV.UK pages with different booking numbers. A person remanded at Wandsworth can later be at Belmarsh, Pentonville or a sentenced house in the North West. We publish facility guides for the large houses people search — not a daily roll. Facility articles under /uk/ are building guides (address, operator, how a visit is booked). They are not who-is-inside tables. If a nation or region has few prison guides, that is coverage on this site, not an empty prison system. Searching ‘UK inmate roster’ and expecting Ohio. Or booking a visit to HMP Birmingham because the person was arrested in the West Midlands. Arrest town, court and establishment are three different facts.

Finding someone held in United Kingdom

United Kingdom does not publish a Google-style inmate spreadsheet. GOV.UK Find a prisoner is the named official route (www.gov.uk/find-prisoner). England and Wales Find a prisoner on GOV.UK needs name, date of birth and the prisoner’s consent. SPS and NIPS are separate phones. Court lists and local Facebook groups are not locators. If reception has not finished first night, the form can lag a day. CurrentPrisonList does not publish names, photos, or conviction histories for people held in UK prisons. Location requests go through official services that require the prisoner’s consent. Confirm visiting times, ID rules and closures on GOV.UK or with the Scottish / Northern Ireland prison services before you travel.

A US reader used to sheriff websites will type “United Kingdom inmate search” and find nothing of the kind. That is the law. Court lists, Facebook groups and paid “worldwide jail” products are not GOV.UK Find a prisoner. If the person was remanded overnight, reception can lag; if they were transferred out of the nation or region you had in mind, the old desk is the wrong door. Use the nation or region pages below to stop treating London as a synonym for the whole country.

Visits, money and staying in touch

Visiting in United Kingdom is not a US-style walk-up. Social visits in England and Wales go through the national prison-visits service once you are on the list. Assisted Prison Visits exists for some benefits. Money is ‘send money to a prisoner’, not a postal order. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own visit desks — a Maghaberry slot is not a Wandsworth PIN. Where a facility guide on this site quotes hours, they were taken from that establishment’s official page — re-check the day before you travel. This country hub will not invent a national timetable.

Dress codes, dog searches and what you may carry are house rules. Money and remote contact, where they exist, go through the official national channel — not a personal transfer to a cellmate. Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast International are not gates. London locals are TfL plus a walk; rural houses need a bus that does not run on Sundays. Print the GOV.UK address. Autocomplete will offer the wrong HMP with a similar saint’s name.

Travel, borders and the wrong-gate problem

Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast International are not gates. London locals are TfL plus a walk; rural houses need a bus that does not run on Sundays. Print the GOV.UK address. Autocomplete will offer the wrong HMP with a similar saint’s name. Print the gate address from the official prison page, not from a maps pin that only names London or “British prison”. Neighbouring countries on this site have their own URLs; a cheaper flight into the next capital is not a visiting permit.

Searching ‘UK inmate roster’ and expecting Ohio. Or booking a visit to HMP Birmingham because the person was arrested in the West Midlands. Arrest town, court and establishment are three different facts. If you only know a town name, match it to a nation or region first, then to a facility guide. Confusing one nation or region of United Kingdom with another is the most common way to book the wrong visit.

Nations and regions of United Kingdom — each on its own URL

United Kingdom is not mixed with the United States or with other European countries. Below is this country’s own first-level map (Nations and regions). Open a unit for a longer article on how custody, visits and travel actually work there. US readers looking for a county inmate spreadsheet will not find one: United Kingdom does not publish that, and neither do we.

Nations and regions

13 pages, written so United Kingdom does not collapse into a single mixed list. This is the analogue of opening a US state after you choose the United States.

region · NottinghamEast MidlandsThe East Midlands covers Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland. City locals sit beside a belt of training prisons. HMPPS decides the gate. There is no public list of prisoners. GOV.UK Find a prisoner works only with the person's consent.Open this area →region · CambridgeEast of EnglandThe East of England is Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. It is commuter country that still hides high-security and coastal jails. HMPPS runs them. There is no public inmate list. GOV.UK Find a prisoner confirms a prison only if the person consents.Open this area →nation · LondonEnglandEngland's prisons are run by HM Prison and Probation Service, not by city councils and not by Scotland or Northern Ireland. Locals in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol take court cases; trainers and high-security sites often sit further away. There is no public inmate list. A location, when HMPPS gives one, needs the prisoner's consent.Open this area →region · LondonLondonLondon's prison cluster is the most searched part of the English estate: Victorian locals inside Greater London, plus fringe jails in Surrey that families still call London. HMPPS runs the system. There is no public list of who is inside. GOV.UK Find a prisoner confirms a gate only with the prisoner's consent.Open this area →region · Newcastle upon TyneNorth EastThe North East is Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and the Tees valley. Durham and Frankland dominate searches. Newcastle is the travel hub, not the only gate. HMPPS runs the estate. There is no public inmate list, and Find a prisoner confirms a location only with consent.Open this area →region · ManchesterNorth WestThe North West is Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. Manchester and Liverpool dominate family searches, then the map runs to Preston, Lancaster and the Cumbrian coast. HMPPS holds people here. There is no public inmate list. Consent is required before Find a prisoner will name a gate.Open this area →nation · BelfastNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland's prisons are run by the Northern Ireland Prison Service, not by HMPPS and not by the Scottish Prison Service. The working estate families meet is Maghaberry, Magilligan and Hydebank Wood. NIPS does not publish a list of people in custody, and the England-and-Wales Find a prisoner form does not cover these gates.Open this area →nation · EdinburghScotlandScotland runs its own prisons through the Scottish Prison Service, under Scots law, not through HMPPS in England and Wales. Edinburgh and Glasgow dominate the Central Belt, but the estate reaches Aberdeen, Inverness and Dumfries. SPS does not publish a list of people in custody, and GOV.UK Find a prisoner does not cover these gates.Open this area →regionSouth EastThe South East, in prison geography, is the ring of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and the Isle of Wight. It is not Greater London, even though London courts send people here. HMPPS holds them. There is no public inmate list. Find a prisoner on GOV.UK works only with consent.Open this area →region · BristolSouth WestThe South West is a long peninsula of locals and trainers: Bristol and Gloucestershire at one end, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset at the other. Distances are the whole story. HMPPS runs the estate. Nobody can Google a list of people in these prisons. Find a prisoner confirms a location only with consent.Open this area →nation · CardiffWalesCymruWales is a nation with its own language and Senedd, but its prisons sit in the England-and-Wales HMPPS estate, not in a separate Welsh prison service. Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend and Wrexham are the places families actually mean. There is no public list of people in custody. GOV.UK Find a prisoner applies, and only with consent.Open this area →region · BirminghamWest MidlandsThe West Midlands is Birmingham and the Black Country, plus Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire. HMP Birmingham is the local people mean. Long Lartin is the high-security outlier in the Worcestershire fields. There is no public inmate list. Find a prisoner on GOV.UK needs the prisoner's consent.Open this area →region · LeedsYorkshireYorkshire's prison map runs from Leeds and Sheffield to Hull, York and the high-security houses at Wakefield and Full Sutton. HMPPS holds people here under England-and-Wales rules. There is no public inmate list. GOV.UK Find a prisoner confirms a location only with the prisoner's consent.Open this area →

Prison guides in United Kingdom

Each page is written for that establishment — address, how families actually locate someone, and how visits work — not a copied country intro.

West Lothian

Addiewell · Medium (men)HMP AddiewellAddiewell is the modern private prison off Addiewell Road near West Calder — a medium-security men’s contract prison that still answers to Scottish visit rules through SPS, not through an England GOV.UK form.Read the guide →

North West

Liverpool · B local (men)HMP AltcourseAltcourse is the contracted local on Higher Lane, Fazakerley — the newer wall on the north of Liverpool, not the Victorian one in Walton. If your solicitor said “the private jail,” this is usually what they meant. If they said Walton, they did not mean this gate.Read the guide →Rochdale · C (men)HMP Buckley HallTurf Moor Road lifts Buckley Hall above Rochdale — a Category C trainer on the Pennine edge that takes men from Manchester locals once sentence and category settle.Read the guide →Salford · B local (men)HMP Forest BankForest Bank is the Agecroft local — a contracted prison on Agecroft Road, M27, that takes Greater Manchester overflow Strangeways cannot swallow. It looks like a modern campus from the ring road. It is not Southall Street.Read the guide →Preston · B (men)HMP GarthUlnes Walton Lane runs past Garth — a Category B trainer in Lancashire’s prison corridor where Preston’s local and Wymott’s Category C share the M55 but not visits desks.Read the guide →Millom · C (men)HMP HaveriggHaverigg’s Category C sits on the Irish Sea coast below Millom — Cumbria’s trainer where the Lake District weather and a long rail hop from Manchester define visit days.Read the guide →Wigan · C (men)HMP HindleyHindley sits at Bickershaw, a Category C trainer in the Wigan hinterland, not a lock-up next to the DW Stadium. Men arrive after a local like Manchester or Forest Bank. The last mile is a bus problem.Read the guide →Preston · D open (men)HMP KirkhamFreckleton Road opens Kirkham — a Category D men’s site in Lancashire where Preston’s closed local and Garth’s Category B wire feel worlds away but share the same county on paper.Read the guide →Liverpool · B local (men)HMP LiverpoolWalton is the word on Merseyside. HMP Liverpool on Hornby Road, L9 3DF, is the Victorian local; Altcourse is the private prison on the other side of the city-region. Mixing those two is the standard first error for families coming off the M57.Read the guide →Manchester · A high security / local (men)HMP ManchesterPeople in Greater Manchester still say Strangeways. The official name is HMP Manchester, 1 Southall Street, M60 9AH: a high-security prison that also does local reception, about 750 men on nine wings, with Victoria station as the rail story and POPS running the visitors’ centre. It is not Forest Bank, and it is not a museum of the 1990 riot.Read the guide →Preston · B local (men)HMP PrestonRibbleton Lane’s Preston local takes Lancashire remand — a city Category B where Garth’s trainer and Kirkham’s open gate sit minutes away by car but miles away in booking systems.Read the guide →Warrington · C local (men)HMP RisleyRisley’s local Category C serves Cheshire and Merseyside overflow — a Warrington-site where Styal’s women’s closed estate and Thorn Cross’s open/YOI history pull families onto the wrong M62 junction.Read the guide →Wilmslow · Women’s closedHMP StyalStyal Road’s women’s prison sits in Cheshire woodland near Wilmslow — a major closed women’s estate where Risley’s men and Manchester’s Strangeways are the names wrongly swapped in half of visit bookings.Read the guide →Warrington · D open / YOI history (check GOV.UK)HMP Thorn CrossThorn Cross opens in Cheshire greenbelt near Warrington — Category D men where Risley’s closed local and Styal’s women’s estate share the M56 corridor but not visit slots.Read the guide →Preston · C (men)HMP WymottWymott’s Category C shares Lancashire’s Ulnes Walton corridor with Garth — trainer beds west of Preston where Ribbleton Lane’s local and Kirkham’s open men are three gates on one car journey, three books online.Read the guide →Lancaster · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI Lancaster FarmsLancaster Farms holds young men on the edge of Lancaster city — a YOI where Preston’s adult local and Haverigg’s distant Cumbrian trainer are the names parents guess when the court said “Lancashire.”Read the guide →

South West

Pucklechurch · YOI / secure training (young men)HMP AshfieldKnoll Lane at Pucklechurch is Ashfield — a contracted site for boys and young men on the Bristol fringe, where the lane feels like countryside but the estate is closed. Horfield’s wall is a different postcode entirely.Read the guide →Bristol · B local (men)HMP BristolCambridge Road in Horfield is Bristol’s city local — a Category B wall behind Gloucester Road shops, where Avon and Somerset remand traffic is routine and Ashfield on Knoll Lane is nowhere near here.Read the guide →Newton Abbot · C (men)HMP Channings WoodDenbury Road threads Channings Wood through South Devon lanes — a Category C trainer below Dartmoor’s moorland prisons and Exeter’s city local.Read the guide →Princetown · C (men)HMP DartmoorPrincetown’s granite and weather define Dartmoor — a Category C trainer in the national park where the last miles from Plymouth or Exeter feel like another country.Read the guide →Wotton-under-Edge · Women’s closedHMP Eastwood ParkFalfield’s closed women’s prison serves the South West and Wales overflow — a Gloucestershire site where Leyhill open men and Bristol locals are the names families cite when the map pin lands wrong.Read the guide →Devizes · C (men)HMP ErlestokeErlestoke village wraps a Category C trainer between Salisbury Plain and the Kennet — Wiltshire’s working prison where Guys Marsh near Shaftesbury is the Dorset-facing neighbour on GOV.UK maps.Read the guide →Exeter · B local (men)HMP ExeterNew North Road’s Victorian local still takes Devon and Cornwall remand — a hillside Category B above the city, while Dartmoor sits an hour away on the moor.Read the guide →Shaftesbury · C (men)HMP Guys MarshGuys Marsh overlooks Dorset’s edge near Shaftesbury — a Category C trainer where Portland’s young offenders and the Verne on Portland Bill are the coastal names on the same county list.Read the guide →Wotton-under-Edge · D open (men)HMP LeyhillLeyhill’s open men live under Category D rules in Gloucestershire woodland — the open counterpart to Bristol’s closed local and Eastwood Park’s closed women ten minutes away by lane, not by booking.Read the guide →Portland · C (men)HMP The VerneThe Verne occupies Portland’s citadel — Category C men on a promontory fort where Portland YOI/The Grove and Weymouth’s mainland courts sit in the same Dorset visit diary with different ferries and gates.Read the guide →Portland · Young people / adult (check GOV.UK)HMP/YOI PortlandThe Grove on the Isle of Portland is a cliff-edge custody site — YOI and adult functions on a tied island where Weymouth ferries and causeway traffic shape every visit, and Guys Marsh inland feels like another county.Read the guide →

Yorkshire

York · D open (women)HMP Askham GrangeAskham Grange is the open women’s house at Askham Richard, village lanes west of York where Category D still means booked visits and ID checks — not a casual drop-in.Read the guide →Doncaster · B local (men)HMP DoncasterMarsh Gate’s contracted local sits in Doncaster’s prison belt — Lindholme and Moorland are neighbours on the map, but each has its own visits hall and operator desk.Read the guide →York · A high security (men)HMP Full SuttonFull Sutton is a high-security prison in the East Yorkshire flatlands, a Category A house that is not York city and not a tourist stop on the way to the Minster. Visits are planned, searched, and unforgiving of the wrong ID.Read the guide →Doncaster · D open (men)HMP HatfieldHatfield Lane’s open prison served Doncaster’s Category D men — a separate gate from Moorland’s closed trainer, though both names appear when someone “moves along the belt.”Read the guide →Hull · B local (men)HMP HullHull prison is on Hedon Road, east of the city, a men’s local that still takes the courts of the East Riding. Humber prison (the old Everthorpe / Wolds site inland) is a different trip. Families who drive “towards Hull” without a postcode collect the wrong visitors’ centre.Read the guide →Brough · C (men)HMP HumberHumber is the inland prison near Brough, stitched together from older Everthorpe and Wolds sites. Hedon Road in the city is HMP Hull. If your directions say “Hull prison” and the postcode is HU15, you want Brough.Read the guide →Leeds · B local (men)HMP LeedsLeeds still calls it Armley. The gate is 2 Gloucester Terrace, Stanningley Road, LS12 2TJ: a men’s local of more than 1,100 across six wings, with Jigsaw in the visitors’ centre and a booking line that only answers in two morning/afternoon windows. It is not Wealstun, and it is not a listed building you photograph from the bus.Read the guide →Doncaster · C (men)HMP LindholmeLindholme’s Category C sits in the Doncaster belt — trainer beds between Marsh Gate’s local and Moorland’s closed wire, where one wrong turn on the A614 puts you at the wrong visits hall.Read the guide →York · Women’s closedHMP MillsikeMillsike holds women on York’s western edge — a closed site in the same regional cluster as Askham Grange’s open lanes and New Hall’s Flockton house, easy to confuse when the court said “Yorkshire.”Read the guide →Doncaster · C (men)HMP MoorlandThorne Road at Hatfield Woodhouse is Moorland — Category C in Doncaster’s belt where Marsh Gate’s local, Lindholme’s trainer, and Hatfield’s open gate share headlines but not visitor lists.Read the guide →Wakefield · A high security (men)HMP WakefieldWakefield is a high-security prison on Love Lane, not the local at Leeds and not a nickname to put in a booking form. The tabloid name is not used on GOV.UK. Families who need this gate already know it is a planned journey with a tight search.Read the guide →Wetherby · C (men)HMP WealstunWealstun is the trainer at Thorpe Arch, a dual-site Category C in the Wetherby countryside. Armley is the city local. If he “moved to a better jail near Leeds,” this is often what people mean — and it is still a closed prison with a booking line.Read the guide →Wakefield · Women / YOIHMP/YOI New HallNew Hall is the women’s prison at Flockton, a rural site south-west of Wakefield. Love Lane is the men’s high-security jail. If the court said “Wakefield” and she is a woman, you almost certainly want Flockton, not Love Lane.Read the guide →Wetherby · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI WetherbyYork Road Wetherby is the YOI gate — young men in a town famous for racecourse traffic, while Wealstun’s Category C adults sit at Thorpe Arch and Leeds Armley takes the city remand.Read the guide →

Strathclyde

Glasgow · Local / reception (men)HMP BarlinnieBarlinnie is the name Glasgow still uses when a sheriff sends someone to custody from the High Court on Saltmarket. Leech Avenue in Riddrie is not a tourist address — it is a Victorian local that swallows most of the west’s court traffic, and families from England often waste a week using the wrong locator.Read the guide →

East of England

Bedford · B local (men)HMP BedfordGoldington Road is Bedford’s Victorian local — a Category B remand and sentence house a mile from the river, where magistrates’ outcomes from Bedfordshire courts often land the same afternoon.Read the guide →Norwich · C (men)HMP BureScottow Road carries Bure — a relatively new Category C on the Norwich outer ring, built when Norfolk needed trainer space beyond the Victorian local on Knox Road.Read the guide →Chelmsford · B local (men)HMP ChelmsfordSpringfield Road’s local absorbs Essex magistrates’ and crown traffic — a compact Category B a short walk from Chelmsford centre, unlike the women’s prison at The Mount in Hemel Hempstead.Read the guide →Milton Keynes · C (men)HMP Five WellsFive Wells is the new contracted Category C on Woburn Road — a huge campus beside the M1 that families mix with Woodhill’s high-security name ten miles away.Read the guide →Newmarket · C (men)HMP HighpointStradishall’s Highpoint sites — North and South — form a Suffolk Category C pair on the Cambridgeshire border, where Norwich local and Whitemoor high security pull families onto the wrong A11 exit.Read the guide →Woodbridge · D open (men)HMP Hollesley BayHollesley Bay’s open men work towards release on Suffolk’s coast — Category D near Woodbridge, while Warren Hill’s closed regime and Norwich local sit on different Suffolk roads.Read the guide →Huntingdon · C (men)HMP LittleheyLittlehey’s Category C occupies Cambridgeshire farmland near Huntingdon — a trainer paired in public debate with specialist populations, while Whitemoor’s high-security wire is the other March-area name.Read the guide →Norwich · B local (men)HMP NorwichKnox Road’s Norwich local still takes Norfolk remand — a city Category B where Bure’s Scottow trainer and Wayland’s Category C are the transfer names on the same county spreadsheet.Read the guide →Peterborough · B local (men and women)HMP PeterboroughSaville Road’s Peterborough is a rare contracted local holding both men and women — one campus where Cambridgeshire remand meets Sodexo’s desk, not Littlehey’s specialist trainer nor Whitemoor’s high-security wire.Read the guide →Hemel Hempstead · C (women)HMP The MountBovingdon Road’s Mount holds women in Hertfordshire — a Category C closed site above the Hemel valley where Bedford’s Goldington Road local and Woodhill’s high-security men are the names mixed into “prisons near London.”Read the guide →Woodbridge · C (men)HMP Warren HillWarren Hill’s Category C sits in Suffolk woodland near Woodbridge — a site long associated with indeterminate sentences, while Hollesley Bay’s open men and Norwich’s Knox Road local are other eastern names.Read the guide →Thetford · C (men)HMP WaylandWayland’s Category C spreads through Breckland near Thetford — Norfolk’s inland trainer where Norwich’s Knox Road local and Bure’s Scottow site anchor the same county’s remand-to-sentence path.Read the guide →March · A high security (men)HMP WhitemoorWhitemoor’s Category A dominates the Fens near March — high-security men in flat Cambridgeshire where Littlehey’s Category C and Highpoint’s trainers are softer eastern names on the same map.Read the guide →

London

London · A high security / local (men)HMP BelmarshBelmarsh is the prison people name-drop from news tapes — Western Way, Thamesmead, a high-security house with a local function bolted on. It is not Wandsworth, and it is not a tourist landmark. Parking is thin, the High Security Unit is a world of its own, and a family visit here feels like a different country from a south-London Category B local.Read the guide →London · C / resettlement (men)HMP BrixtonBrixton is the small hilltop prison behind Jebb Avenue, a men’s house of about 800 across five wings, better known lately for The Clink restaurant and a resettlement pitch than for the Victorian scare-stories. It is still a closed prison. You will not walk in because you know someone who ate at The Clink.Read the guide →London · B local (men)HMP PentonvillePentonville is the north London local you can see from the Caledonian Road — seven wings, about 1,300 men, a jail that has been receiving prisoners since 1842 and still takes the overnight traffic from the city’s northern courts. It is not Belmarsh and it is not a museum. Families who treat it like a landmark end up late for a 13:45 slot.Read the guide →London · B local (men)HMP ThamesideThameside is the privately run men’s local on the Thamesmead cluster — Serco, not HMPPS in uniform, and not the high-security gate at Belmarsh. GOV.UK’s own Thameside page now mostly points you to the contractor’s site for visit slots. Families who type “Thamesmead prison” into a map pin get the wrong visitors’ centre with depressing regularity.Read the guide →London · B local (men)HMP WandsworthWandsworth is still the jail south London families mean when they say “he’s gone to Wandsworth.” It is a huge Category B local on Heathfield Road, not a high-security island like Belmarsh, and the sheer size is the first thing that catches people out: reception can swallow a court van and still take until late evening to let someone make that first call.Read the guide →London · B local (men)HMP Wormwood ScrubsThe Scrubs is the west London local on Du Cane Road — about 1,200 men, five big wings, a brick wall Londoners have walked past for 150 years. Visits here are not “turn up at the weekend.” They are allocated by wing and by week. If nobody told you whether he is on B wing or D wing, you can book the wrong Saturday.Read the guide →Feltham · YOI / prison for young people and young menHMP/YOI FelthamFeltham is the west London young-offender complex off Bedfont Road, a name that still carries more weight in family conversations than almost any other YOI in the country. It is split in public discussion into younger and older units; the only split that matters to a visitor is the one on the booking confirmation.Read the guide →London · C / young menHMP/YOI IsisIsis is the young-men prison on the Thamesmead campus — not Belmarsh, not Thameside, and not a children’s YOI in the Feltham sense. Families hear “Western Way” and walk to the high-security gate. The sign on the visitors’ centre is the only map that matters.Read the guide →

Wales

Wrexham · C (men)HMP BerwynBerwyn is the large Category C at Wrexham, built as a flagship and run as a working prison for North Wales and the north-west overflow. It is not Altcourse and it is not a day trip you invent off the A483 without a booking.Read the guide →Cardiff · B local (men)HMP CardiffCardiff prison sits on Knox Road, a Victorian local a short cab from Queen Street, still taking the capital’s courts. Parc (Bridgend, private, huge) is the other South Wales name. Swansea is the second city local. Three prisons, three gates.Read the guide →Usk · D open (men)HMP PrescoedPrescoed is the open prison in the woods towards Coed-y-Paen, Category D, a different regime from Usk’s closed house. If he has “gone to open,” this is the Welsh name that comes up — still not a family picnic site.Read the guide →Swansea · B local (men)HMP SwanseaSwansea prison is on Oystermouth Road, a small local with a seafront postcode and a city-centre search process. It looks close to the leisure of the bay. It is not. Parc is a motorway trip; Cardiff is another city.Read the guide →Usk · C (men)HMP UskUsk is a small Category C in the middle of a market town, a wall on Maryport Street that visitors overshoot because it looks like more town. Prescoed, the open prison, is a separate booking a short drive away.Read the guide →Bridgend · Mixed functions (men / YOI)HMP/YOI ParcParc is the big contracted campus at Bridgend, the prison that absorbed a huge share of the Welsh estate’s growth. It holds men and has YOI functions. It is not a suburb of Cardiff prison. The visitors’ centre is a site of its own.Read the guide →

West Midlands

Birmingham · B local (men)HMP BirminghamWinson Green is the name Birmingham still uses. The prison is HMP Birmingham, Winson Green Road, B18 4AS: about 1,000 men on eleven wings, back in HMPPS hands after the private-contract years, with social visits every day of the week if you book them. It is not Oakwood, and it is not a tram stop called “the jail.”Read the guide →Uttoxeter · B (men)HMP DovegateDovegate rises outside Uttoxeter as a large contracted Category B site — Staffordshire’s private campus where Swinfen Hall YOI and the closed trainer at Stafford pull families onto the wrong A50 exit.Read the guide →Eccleshall · Women’s closed / open mixHMP Drake HallStoke Road at Eccleshall is Drake Hall — a Staffordshire women’s site where open and closed functions have shared one estate, while Styal and Foston Hall are the other Midlands women’s names.Read the guide →Wolverhampton · C (men)HMP FeatherstoneFeatherstone is the older HMPPS Category C on New Road, sitting beside the much larger Oakwood campus. Families who book “Featherstone” and follow a satnav to Oaks Drive arrive at the contractor’s wall.Read the guide →Redditch · B/C (men)HMP HewellHewell is the Worcestershire prison on Hewell Lane, a site that has worn more than one function (local, trainer, open) in public memory. Book the current GOV.UK name. It is not Winson Green and it is not a National Trust afternoon.Read the guide →Evesham · A high security (men)HMP Long LartinLong Lartin’s Category A holds some of the most restricted men in England — a Worcestershire high-security estate where Onley’s Category C and Rye Hill’s private trainer are softer names on the same map.Read the guide →Wolverhampton · C (men)HMP OakwoodOakwood is the huge contracted Category C at Featherstone, the prison people mean when they say “the big new one near Wolverhampton.” Winson Green is the Birmingham local. Featherstone prison (HMP Featherstone) is yet another gate on the same landscape. Three names, three bookings.Read the guide →Rugby · C (men)HMP OnleyOnley’s Category C sits in Warwickshire fields near Rugby — a trainer between Birmingham’s locals and Long Lartin’s Category A, where Rye Hill’s private site is another Warwickshire gate on the M45 corridor.Read the guide →Rugby · B (men)HMP Rye HillRye Hill’s contracted Category B sits near Rugby in Warwickshire — a private trainer paired with Onley’s Category C in family maps of “prisons near the M1,” neither of them Long Lartin’s Category A.Read the guide →Stafford · C (men)HMP StaffordStafford’s Category C trainer occupies town-edge custody — closed men a mile from the county town centre, while Drake Hall’s women and Swinfen Hall’s YOI share the county name on paper only.Read the guide →Wolverhampton · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI BrinsfordBrinsford’s New Road gate serves young men in the Featherstone belt — close enough to Oakwood’s campus that families pick the wrong visitors’ centre on the A460.Read the guide →Market Drayton · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI Stoke HeathStoke Heath holds young men on the Shropshire–Staffordshire border near Market Drayton — a YOI where Stafford’s adult trainer and Swinfen Hall’s other YOI gate sit in the same county conversations.Read the guide →Lichfield · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI Swinfen HallSwinfen Hall’s YOI holds young men near Lichfield — Staffordshire lanes where Stafford’s adult Category C and Stoke Heath’s border YOI are the other gates on the same family map.Read the guide →Stoke-on-Trent · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI WerringtonWerrington’s YOI holds young men on Stoke’s edge — Staffordshire custody where Stafford’s adult trainer and Swinfen Hall’s Lichfield YOI are the names adults cite when a teenager lands in “Staffordshire prison.”Read the guide →

London fringe

Ashford · Women (closed)HMP BronzefieldBronzefield is the large privately run women’s prison on Woodthorpe Road, Ashford — Sodexo’s contract, not the Sutton HMPPS site at Downview. It holds women from across the south, including remand. It is also the prison whose name appears in national reporting. That does not create a public roll of who is inside.Read the guide →Banstead · C (men)HMP High DownHigh Down sits on High Down Lane above Banstead, a Category C men’s prison that London families reach after the person has already been through a local like Wandsworth. It feels like Surrey countryside until the wall appears. It is not a London postcode jail and it is not Downview next door — Downview is women.Read the guide →Sutton · Women / YOIHMP/YOI DownviewDownview is the women’s prison on Sutton Lane, a short but important distinction from High Down’s men’s gate on the same ridge. If the court said “she’s gone to Sutton,” this is the establishment you mean — not Bronzefield in Ashford, which is a different contractor and a different town.Read the guide →

South East

Bicester · B/C local (men)HMP BullingdonBullingdon Green spreads a large local across Oxfordshire farmland — remand and sentence men from Thames Valley courts, while Aylesbury YOI and Woodhill sit on different roads with different books.Read the guide →Woking · C (men)HMP ColdingleyColdingley is the industrial Category C at Bisley, a men’s prison built around workshops rather than a city wall. Send, down the road, is women. Woking families still mix the two.Read the guide →Maidstone · D open (women)HMP East Sutton ParkEast Sutton Park’s open women’s house sits in parkland above the Weald — Category D with a Maidstone postcode but not Maidstone’s closed local on County Road.Read the guide →Sheerness · B/C local (men)HMP ElmleyChurch Road on Sheppey is Elmley — a local that shares an island with Swaleside and Standford Hill open, so one bridge crossing can still end at the wrong gate.Read the guide →Arundel · D open (men)HMP FordFord’s open men walk the coastal plain under Category D rules — a West Sussex site where Lewes local and Portland on the Channel coast are the closed names visitors confuse after “down south” transfers.Read the guide →Newport · B/C (men)HMP Isle of WightParkhurst Road on the Isle of Wight is the merged HMP Isle of Wight — Albany and Camp Hill histories under one banner, where every visit starts with a ferry unless you already live on the island.Read the guide →Lewes · B local (men)HMP LewesBrighton Road’s local under Lewes cliff takes Sussex remand — a compact Category B where Ford’s open coast and Portland’s isle are the “down south” names on later transfer lists.Read the guide →Maidstone · C local (men)HMP MaidstoneCounty Road’s Maidstone local absorbs Kent crown and magistrates’ traffic — a town-centre closed prison where East Sutton Park’s open women and Cookham Wood’s YOI share the county but not the visits queue.Read the guide →Woking · C womenHMP SendSend is the women’s prison on Ripley Road outside Woking, a Category C house that is easy to miss if you only know the M25 names Bronzefield and Downview. It is quieter on the internet and still a closed prison with a booking line.Read the guide →Aylesbury · D open (men)HMP Spring HillSpring Hill’s open men live near Grendon Underwood — Category D lanes adjacent to Grendon’s therapeutic closed community, a pairing that confuses anyone who only heard “Grendon” in a documentary.Read the guide →Sheerness · D open (men)HMP Standford HillStandford Hill opens onto Sheppey’s north coast — Category D men sharing Church Road geography with Elmley’s local and Swaleside’s closed Category B, one bridge and three gates.Read the guide →Sheerness · B/C (men)HMP SwalesideBrabazon Road’s Swaleside is Sheppey’s Category B/C trainer — closed men on an island cluster with Elmley’s local and Standford Hill’s open coast walk minutes away but administratively worlds apart.Read the guide →Winchester · B local (men)HMP WinchesterRomsey Road’s Winchester local climbs above the cathedral city — Hampshire remand in a Victorian house where the Isle of Wight’s ferry custody and Ford’s open coast feel like different countries though they share “south coast” headlines.Read the guide →Milton Keynes · A high security (men)HMP WoodhillTattenhoe Street’s Woodhill is high-security Category A in Milton Keynes — a wire estate where Five Wells’ new contracted Category C and Bedford’s Goldington local are the names families confuse when someone says “Milton Keynes jail.”Read the guide →Aylesbury · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI AylesburyBierton Road climbs out of Aylesbury to the YOI that holds some of the longest-sentenced young men in England — a closed site above the vale, not the adult local at Bicester.Read the guide →Rochester · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI Cookham WoodSir Evelyn Road hosts Cookham Wood — a Medway YOI where young men sit in the same Kent cluster as Rochester YOI and the adult locals on the Isle of Sheppey.Read the guide →Henley-on-Thames · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI HuntercombeNuffield’s lanes lead to Huntercombe — an Oxfordshire YOI above the Thames valley where Bullingdon’s adult remand and Aylesbury’s long-term YOI are the names mixed into one family WhatsApp.Read the guide →Rochester · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI RochesterEpaul Lane’s Rochester YOI is Medway’s other young-men gate — distinct from Cookham Wood on Sir Evelyn Road and from Elmley’s Sheppey adults across the water.Read the guide →

Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries · Local (men)HMP DumfriesDumfries prison on Terregles Road is the south-west’s men’s local — the place Stranraer and Dumfries sheriffs use so families are not automatically driving to Glasgow or Edinburgh.Read the guide →

North East

Durham · B local (men)HMP DurhamDurham prison sits on Old Elvet, a local jail in a cathedral city, a short walk from the crown court and a long conceptual distance from Frankland, the high-security prison on the edge of town. Tourists photograph the cathedral. Families queue at a different door.Read the guide →Durham · A high security (men)HMP FranklandFrankland is the high-security prison at Brasside, not the local on Old Elvet. Category A rules, a longer search, and a visitors’ process that assumes you already know this is not a city-centre jail. News stories use the name; they do not create a public list of who is on the units.Read the guide →Stockton-on-Tees · B local (men)HMP Holme HouseHolme House Road anchors Teesside’s local — Category B remand and sentence traffic from Middlesbrough and Stockton courts, while Durham and Frankland hold the county’s high-security men upstream.Read the guide →Yarm · D open (men)HMP Kirklevington GrangeKirklevington Grange prepares men for release on Teesside’s open estate — Category D near Yarm, while Holme House’s local remand and Frankland’s high security sit on the same regional map with different gates.Read the guide →Morpeth · C (men)HMP NorthumberlandKnarston Lane’s Northumberland is a vast contracted Category C — built from older Acklington DNA — where Durham’s Victorian local and Frankland’s high-security men are the names Tyne families cite when the map zooms wrong.Read the guide →Barnard Castle · YOI (young men)HMP/YOI DeerboltBowes Road at Barnard Castle is Deerbolt — a Teesdale YOI where County Durham’s adult high-security names at Durham and Frankland are the ones parents confuse after a mixed-age court list.Read the guide →Durham · Women / YOIHMP/YOI Low NewtonLow Newton is the women’s prison on the Brasside campus, a neighbour to Frankland and a different world from the men’s local on Old Elvet. If she “went to Durham,” check the locator before you join a high-security queue by mistake.Read the guide →

Lothian

Edinburgh · Local (men)HMP EdinburghEdinburgh prison — still called Saughton by locals — sits on Stenhouse Road in the west of the city. It is the Lothian local men arrive at from Sheriff Court business on Chambers Street, and it is easy to mix up with Polmont if the person is under 21.Read the guide →

East Midlands

Leicester · C (men)HMP Fosse WayFosse Way’s contracted Category C sits on the western edge of Leicester — a private trainer where the city local on Welford Road and Gartree’s high-security belt are different postcodes on the same map.Read the guide →Derby · Women’s closedHMP Foston HallFoston village hosts Foston Hall — a closed women’s prison between Derby and Uttoxeter where Drake Hall and Eastwood Park are the other Midlands women’s gates on family group chats.Read the guide →Market Harborough · B high security (men)HMP GartreeGartree’s high-security Category B holds long-sentence men in the Leicestershire countryside — a trainer associated with life and indeterminate terms, not Leicester’s Welford Road local.Read the guide →Aylesbury · B therapeutic (men)HMP GrendonGrendon Underwood hosts England’s therapeutic community prison — men who volunteer for group-based sentence work, miles from Bullingdon’s remand bustle and Woodhill’s high-security wire.Read the guide →Leicester · B local (men)HMP LeicesterLeicester prison is the small Victorian local on Welford Road, still inside the city, a jail you can overshoot on a bus because it looks like more brick in a brick city. Gartree (Category B trainer, Market Harborough) is a country drive.Read the guide →Lincoln · B local (men)HMP LincolnLincoln prison sits on Greetwell Road, a local jail in a tourist city. The cathedral is the postcard; this is the other hill. North Sea Camp (open, Boston) is a different Lincolnshire journey.Read the guide →Nottingham · B (men)HMP Lowdham GrangeLowdham Grange’s contracted Category B fills Nottinghamshire trainer space — a private site where Nottingham’s city local and Whatton’s specialist Category C are separate bookings along the A6097 corridor.Read the guide →Lincoln · Closed / IRC functions (check GOV.UK)HMP Morton HallSwinderby’s Morton Hall sits between Lincoln and Newark — a site known nationally for immigration detention and prison functions that shift with policy, not a substitute for Lincoln’s men’s local on Greetwell Road.Read the guide →Boston · D open (men)HMP North Sea CampFreiston Shore’s North Sea Camp is open custody on the Lincolnshire coast — Category D men with Boston’s flat farmland around them, while Lincoln’s closed local and Morton Hall’s policy-heavy site sit inland.Read the guide →Nottingham · B local (men)HMP NottinghamNottingham prison is on Perry Road in Sherwood, a men’s local that takes the city’s courts. Whatton (sex-offender trainer, Bingham) is a different establishment with a different visitors’ culture. “He’s in Nottingham” is not a postcode.Read the guide →Retford · C (men)HMP RanbyRanby’s Category C spreads across Nottinghamshire farmland near Retford — a trainer feeding the A1 corridor where Lincoln’s local and Lowdham’s contracted Category B are the names on the same transfer sheet.Read the guide →Oakham · C (men)HMP StockenStocken Hall Road cuts through Rutland’s Category C trainer — a small county’s main prison where Leicester’s Welford Road local and Gartree’s high-security belt are the Leicestershire names on upstream transfers.Read the guide →Sudbury · D open (men)HMP SudburySudbury’s open men live in Derbyshire countryside near Ashbourne — Category D resettlement where Foston Hall’s closed women and Dovegate’s contracted Category B are the closed names on the A50.Read the guide →Nottingham · C (men)HMP WhattonWhatton’s Category C holds specialist populations in Nottinghamshire countryside — a trainer associated with sex-offender work in public reporting, while Nottingham’s Perry Road local and Lowdham’s contracted Category B are everyday remand names.Read the guide →

Central

Tullibody · Medium / long-term (men)HMP GlenochilGlenochil sits above Tullibody with views over the Forth valley — a sentenced men’s prison that takes classified prisoners from across Scotland, not the Edinburgh remand cell someone’s solicitor mentioned on Monday.Read the guide →

Grampian

Peterhead · Local / reception (men)HMP GrampianHMP Grampian replaced the old Peterhead granite prison with a modern campus on Bruce Road — the north-east’s men’s local for Aberdeen, Elgin, and Highland court traffic that is not sitting in Inverness.Read the guide →

Inverclyde

Greenock · Local (men)HMP GreenockGreenock prison climbs the hill above the Clyde — the Inverclyde local that keeps west-coast court prisoners out of Barlinnie when capacity allows, with a visit hall families reach after a stiff walk from the town centre.Read the guide →

Highland

Inverness · Local (men)HMP InvernessHMP Inverness on Porterfield Road is the compact Highland local — the jail Inverness Sheriff Court uses when custody is needed without sending everyone south to Perth or Peterhead.Read the guide →

Ayrshire

Kilmarnock · Medium (men)HMP KilmarnockKilmarnock prison on Mauchline Road is Ayrshire’s contracted men’s prison — a medium-security site that takes classified prisoners from Glasgow and the south-west without being HMP Dumfries or Greenock.Read the guide →

East Dunbartonshire

Bishopbriggs · Local (men)HMP Low MossLow Moss replaced the old Bishopbriggs huts with a purpose-built local on Grahamston Road — the east Glasgow fringe jail that takes pressure off Barlinnie when courts are busy.Read the guide →

Tayside

Perth · Local / trainer (men)HMP PerthPerth prison on Edinburgh Road is the Tayside house families mean when Dundee or Perth courts send someone to custody — a mixed local and training role that also takes men moving through the Scottish estate. It is not Inverness, and it is not Glenochil.Read the guide →

Lanarkshire

Shotts · High security (men)HMP ShottsShotts is the high-security name in Scottish headlines — a purpose-built men’s prison on Shotts Road in Lanarkshire that holds long-term and high-risk prisoners from across the country. The visit regime is tighter than at Saughton, and the journey from Edinburgh or Glasgow is deliberately planned.Read the guide →

Stirling

Stirling · WomenHMP StirlingHMP Stirling on Randolph Road is the women’s estate that replaced Cornton Vale — Scotland’s national women’s prison conversation now points here, not to the old Vale site families still Google from ten-year-old news.Read the guide →

Falkirk

Polmont · Young offendersHMP/YOI PolmontPolmont on Brightons Road is Scotland’s main young offenders institution — the Falkirk site that holds under-21 custody, where parents need Polmont’s SPS pages, not an adult local’s visit hall.Read the guide →

Belfast

Belfast · Women and young peopleHydebank Wood CollegeHydebank Wood on Hydebank Drive is Northern Ireland’s combined site for women and young people in custody — a south Belfast campus that is not Maghaberry’s men’s gate, with visit rules parents must read on NIPS pages.Read the guide →

County Antrim

Lisburn · High security / local (men)Maghaberry PrisonMaghaberry is the large men’s prison outside Lisburn that holds most of Northern Ireland’s high-security and remand population — the gate families reach after Belfast courts when Hydebank is not the answer.Read the guide →

County Londonderry

Limavady · Medium / low (men)Magilligan PrisonMagilligan sits on the north coast at the mouth of Lough Foyle — the sentenced men’s prison Belfast families forget exists until someone transfers out of Maghaberry for long-term Northern Ireland time.Read the guide →

Questions families actually ask

Is there a public UK inmate search like a US county roster?
No. England and Wales offer Find a prisoner on GOV.UK, which only discloses a location with the prisoner’s consent. Scotland and Northern Ireland handle enquiries through their own prison services. This site does not list names.
Can I look someone up with just a name?
The official England and Wales form asks for name and date of birth. Without consent, HMPPS will not tell you the prison. Court lists and local news are not a substitute for the locator.
Do visiting times on these pages replace GOV.UK?
No. Where we quote session times, we took them from the prison’s GOV.UK guidance and we still tell you to re-check before you travel. Slots, dress codes and dog-search rules change without much notice.
Does CurrentPrisonList list who is in jail in United Kingdom today?
No. United Kingdom pages are geographic and procedural guides. CurrentPrisonList does not publish names, photos, or conviction histories for people held in UK prisons. Location requests go through official services that require the prisoner’s consent. Confirm visiting times, ID rules and closures on GOV.UK or with the Scottish / Northern Ireland prison services before you travel.
Why does United Kingdom have Nations and regions instead of one mixed list?
The United Kingdom is four prison services wearing one country URL: England and Wales under HMPPS, Scotland under SPS, Northern Ireland under NIPS. English regions (London, North West, West Midlands and the rest) are how families actually travel, not ceremonial counties. Wales is not a region of England on this site. Scotland is not a ‘north of England’ filter. Belfast is not a London listing. Mixing those units would be the same mistake as putting Ohio inmates under California.
How do I visit a prison in United Kingdom?
Identify the establishment through GOV.UK Find a prisoner or the lawyer, get on the visitor list, and book that house. Social visits in England and Wales go through the national prison-visits service once you are on the list. Assisted Prison Visits exists for some benefits. Money is ‘send money to a prisoner’, not a postal order. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own visit desks — a Maghaberry slot is not a Wandsworth PIN. Plan travel via London only if the letter actually names a house there — the nation or region pages exist because it often does not.

Other countries

Each country is a separate area of the site so US county rosters, UK prisons and European JVA / maison d’arrêt guides never share a URL.

DEGermanyDeutschland16 Länder (federal states) · 10 prison guidesFRFranceFrance13 Régions · 8 prison guidesDKDenmarkDanmark5 Regions · 3 prison guidesIEIrelandÉire26 Counties · 4 prison guidesNLNetherlandsNederland12 Provinces · 3 prison guidesBEBelgiumBelgië / Belgique13 Regions and provinces · 3 prison guidesESSpainEspaña17 Autonomous communities · 3 prison guidesITItalyItalia20 Regioni · 4 prison guides

All countries →

Source

Confirm location, visits and hours on the official service. This site does not list who is in custody.

Official locatorGOV.UK Find a prisonerOpen official site →