Frankland inspection report 2024
Report for Frankland Prison
Summary
Frankland prison, situated outside Durham and adjacent to Low Newton women’s prison, is one of a handful of high security establishments capable of holding dangerous men who have committed the most serious crimes. An extensive site and a complex institution, at the time of the inspection the prison held 821 men, many of whom were serving indeterminate sentences including life, and a small number who would never be released. The complexity of the institution, and in particular the security challenges faced, was evidenced by the 258 prisoners who were designated category A, 13 of whom were considered high risk. The prison also operated several specialist facilities, including a wing dedicated to the treatment of men with severe personality disorders (the Westgate unit), a separation centre and close supervision centre: these two centres were not inspected during this visit as they are subject to separate inspection arrangements. We last inspected Frankland in 2020 when we reported on a very capable institution that was achieving reasonably good outcomes against all four of our healthy prison tests. At this inspection, and despite the upheavals of recent years, we are pleased to report similar findings, with outcomes against our four tests again all assessed as reasonably good.