A guide to London’s prisons

We take a look at all of London’s major prisons after it was announced HMP Wandsworth would be getting a £100m worth of investment.

Transcript

00:00One of the government's key policies is to tackle a so-called prison crisis. With overcrowding

00:06an issue and living conditions a concern for inmates. So much so that HMP Wandsworth is

00:13set to be given £100 million after being labelled catastrophic. An inspection in May

00:19found shocking conditions and failures in leadership at every level. With overcrowding

00:25an issue, how many prisons are there in London? Well, one of the most famous prisons in the

00:31UK is HMP Belmarsh, and it's London's only Category A prison. Category A prisons

00:38house male prisoners who, if they were to escape, pose the most threat to public, police

00:44or national security. HMP Thameside is based a short distance from Belmarsh, in the Thamesmead

00:51area of Greenwich, in south-east London. It is a Category B resettlement prison that holds 1,232

01:00convicted and remand male prisoners. Category B prisoners are those who pose a risk to the public

01:06but do not require maximum security. One of the country's oldest and busiest prisons is HMP

01:13Pentonville in Islington, north London. The Category B prison is home to around 1,300 inmates

01:21and is largely unchanged structurally in nearly 180 years. Then you have HMP Brixton that's made

01:29a transition recently from a local prison, where someone is held prior to trial or directly after

01:35conviction, to a Category C or D jail. Category C prisons are training and resettlement jails

01:41where the majority of inmates are housed. The main female prison in Greater London is out west

01:47HMP Bronzefield. Accommodation at Bronzefield is divided into four main residential units,

01:53each holding approximately 135 women.