United Kingdom · seat London

England prison guide: HMPPS visits and locating a prisoner

England'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.

England: how this area actually works

England's prisons belong to HM Prison and Probation Service, the agency for England and Wales, not to a mayor and not to the Scottish Prison Service or the Northern Ireland Prison Service. Local prisons in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Newcastle take people from magistrates' courts and Crown Courts. Training prisons, open prisons and the high-security dispersal estate often sit in a different English region from the courtroom. Category, sentence length and space decide a move. Families cannot choose the gate. This page is the national map of that system and of the official routes into it.

The practical map is a set of regions, not one London switchboard. Greater London and the London fringe in Surrey and north Kent take a huge share of remand. The South East runs through Hampshire, Sussex and the Isle of Wight. The South West reaches Bristol, Exeter, Dartmoor and Dorset. East of England covers Essex, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. The East Midlands and West Midlands split Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham and the Black Country. Yorkshire, the North West and the North East complete the picture from Leeds and Manchester to Newcastle and Durham. A transfer across those lines is ordinary.

HMPPS sorts jails by job. A local turns over remand and short sentences. A trainer is where longer sentences are meant to settle. Open prisons have their own trust rules. Women's prisons are few, so someone from Cornwall or Cumbria may be held far from home. Youth custody is another set of gates. High-security dispersal prisons are not interchangeable with a town-centre local. When a relative names a jail, ask whether they mean the first-night local or a later allocation. Gossip between English regions is common and often wrong. Check the establishment on the official result before you name a city.

Finding someone held in England

England and Wales do not publish who is in which prison. Use GOV.UK Find a prisoner with the person's name and date of birth. HMPPS confirms a prison only if that person agrees. A same-day remand from a court in Manchester, Leeds, Bristol or London may not appear until the next working day. A failed search is not proof of release, and a social-media post is not a roll of names. If consent is refused, staff will not give you a wing or a cell.

Letters, the email-a-prisoner service and money payments need the prison number once a jail is confirmed. The prisoner or the solicitor usually has that number first. Ringing a switchboard in Birmingham or London to ask for a name search is not the published route. If someone moves from a South East local to a trainer in Yorkshire, run Find a prisoner again. The old gate is no longer the answer. Probation matters after sentence, not as a public directory of people in custody.

Visits and family practicalities

Social visits in England start only after the prisoner has put you on the visitor list. At least one adult is normally required. Each jail, from a London local to an open prison in Yorkshire, publishes its own sessions on GOV.UK, and those days change. This guide does not invent a timetable. Open that establishment's page on the morning you book and again on the morning you travel.

Bring the photographic identification HMPPS lists. Phones and most bags stay out of the hall. Visitors' centres, often run by a charity, are the place to ask about lockers and clothing rules. A visit booked for a prison in Kent is useless at a prison in Lancashire if a transfer happened overnight. Re-check the location before you buy a ticket from London, Birmingham or Manchester.

Getting around England

Few English prisons sit at the main station. Allow time beyond London King's Cross, Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds, Bristol Temple Meads or Newcastle for a bus or taxi. Rural trainers and open prisons can be miles from a platform, with a thin evening service. If the visit ends after the last bus, you need a plan that does not depend on staff.

Driving is sometimes the only realistic option in the South West, rural Lincolnshire or Cumbria, but many city locals have almost no visitor parking. Streets around inner London, Birmingham and Manchester are permit zones. Use the postcode on the official GOV.UK page rather than a rideshare pin with a nickname. Add time for the gate itself.

Prison guides in England

Facility articles for houses we have sourced in this nation or region. Empty coverage here is this site’s map, not proof that nobody is held in England.

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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →

Questions families actually ask

Can I look up everyone held in an English prison?
No. England does not publish a custody roll. GOV.UK Find a prisoner can confirm a location only with the prisoner's consent, and only after HMPPS has processed reception. Court day itself is often too early.
Does a Crown Court in England keep someone nearby?
Often at first. Courts in London, Birmingham, Manchester and other cities send remand prisoners to a local jail. HMPPS may later move them to a trainer, an open prison or a high-security site in another part of England.
Where do England visit times come from?
From that prison's own GOV.UK page, after you are on the prisoner's visitor list. Session days differ between establishments. Do not reuse a timetable copied from a different jail.

Other Nations and regions in United Kingdom

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 →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 →

All of United Kingdom →

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 →