Question: How many prisons are in England?

List of prisons in the United Kingdom



List of prisons in the United Kingdom is a list of all 150 current and a number of historical prisons in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Prisons, Prison Services, Prison Population and Prisoner Categories
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Public Sector prisons in England and Wales are managed by Her Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS), which is part of the Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service, an executive agency of the United Kingdom government.[1] In addition, since the 1990s the day-to-day running of a number of previously existing prisons, as well as several new facilities, has been "contracted out" to private companies, such as Serco and G4S.[2] All prisons in England and Wales, whether publicly or privately run, are inspected by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons.[2][3] Prisons in Scotland are run by the Scottish Prison Service and prisons in Northern Ireland are run by the Northern Ireland Prison Service.
There are also "" run by the Home Office.
The following table lists all prisons and Young Offender Institutions in use in England and Wales as of the late 2010s. All house adult males, and are operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service unless noted otherwise. Adult offenders are persons aged 21 or over, Young Offenders are persons aged between 18–20, and Youth/Juvenile Offenders are persons aged between 10–17. However, some offenders aged between 15–17 are placed in Young Offender Institutions in certain cases due to capacity, risk and other factors.
Population
As of 2018, the total prison population of the UK (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined) stands at roughly 93,000, with a total prison capacity of around 96,000.[4] The total UK prison population is expected to grow by at least 500–1,000 prisoners every year into the 2020s.[5][6][7]
United Kingdom Prisoner Categories and Establishment Types
In England and Wales male adult (aged 21+) prisoners are divided into 4 security categories depending on the offences they have been convicted of, their escape risk, their length of sentence, and any of their previous criminal convictions, if any. They are as follows, 
Category A - 'Those whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public or national security'. Typically for example those convicted of offences such as murder, manslaughter, terrorism, rape, wounding with intent (GBH), robbery, serious firearm and explosives offences, offences against the state, those sentenced under the Official Secrets Act, or any attempts of the offences above. There are a total of 9 Category A prisons in England and Wales who house some of the nation's most notorious criminals today. Scotland and Northern Ireland also have one equivalent high security prison each. A category A prison would be the equivalent of a supermax/maximum security prison in the United States for example.
Category B - 'Those who do not require maximum security, but for whom escape still needs to be made very difficult'. Typically for those convicted of the same types offences as category A prisoners, but who are not judged to be as high risk or those who have served a long time as a category A prisoner with good behavior/rehabilitation are sometimes downgraded to category B. A category B prison would be the equivalent of a medium security prison in the United States for example.
Category C - 'Those who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to try to escape'. Typically for those convicted of minor offences and who are serving shorter sentences no more than a few years in length. Also category B prisoners coming to the end of their sentence are sometimes downgraded to category C to prepare them for release. A category C prison would be the equivalent of a minimum security prison in the United States for example.
 Category D - 'Those who can be reasonably trusted not to try to escape, and are given the privilege of an open prison'. Category D prisoners are held in "Open Prisons" in which they are trusted to be able to move freely around the prison without risk and who after completing a risk assessment may be allowed to work outside of the prison in the community or allowed short home visits for a set number of hours a week. Also category C prisoners coming to the end of their sentence are sometimes downgraded to category D to prepare them for release. A category D prison would be the equivalent of a minimum security work release prison in the United States for example.
Young offenders/juveniles (aged under 21) are given security categories, but they share the same categorisation system as adult women and not the Cat A-D like adult men. Adult women (Aged 21+) and young offenders/juveniles in England and Wales are categorised with four types of security levels going from Open, Closed, Restricted Status and Category A (female/YO Cat A being similar to Cat A for adult men in England, Wales and Northern Ireland). However Cat A for women/YOs is rarely used due to the fairly low number of women and young people being held for such serious offences, meaning most are held either in Closed or Restricted Status conditions. Northern Ireland operates a similar A,B,C and D lettered prisoner category system similar to England and Wales. Scotland operates a separate category system going from Low, Medium and High Supervision (High Supervision being similar to Cat A for adult men in England, Wales and Northern Ireland). 
Additionally where as adult men and women (Aged 21+) are held in dedicated prisons, people under 21 are held in one of four types of establishments across the country that are run by either HM prison service, private companies (such as G4S or Serco), local council authorities and rarely some charity providers. They are,
 Young Offender Institutions (YOIs)  which are "prison" based and that hold young men and women aged 18-20 convicted or remanded for any offences.
 Youth Offender Institutions (YOs)  which are "prison" based and very similar to YOIs but that the difference being they only hold younger males aged 15-17 and not females.
 Secure Training Centres (STCs)  which focus more on things such as education, health and support rather than prison style punishment. They hold convicted males and females aged 12-17.
 Secure Children's Homes (SCHs)  which are similar to STC's in that they mainly focus on things like education, health and support rather than prison style punishment. Additionally not all children held in SCHs have necessarily been convicted or accused of crimes, some are held due to things like their history of absconding from regular open care homes or those at high risk of vulnerability from things such as abuse, drugs and prostitution. They hold "at risk" males and females aged 10-17 and all young children aged 10-12 convicted of serious offences until they can be placed in a STC. 
More can be found here Prisoner security categories in the United Kingdom.
Prisons and Young Offender Institutions

Former prisons

Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Prison Service)
The following table lists the three active prisons in Northern Ireland. All three are operated by the Northern Ireland Prison Service. There is also a Juvenile Justice Centre, located in Bangor, County Down, which is operated by the Youth Justice Agency. It is also used as a prison officer training centre.[160]

Former prison
Maze, County Antrim (also called Long Kesh) – closed 29 September 2000
Scotland (Scottish Prison Service)

Former prisons

See also
United Kingdom prison population
Slopping out




 - England and Wales