Styal inspection report 2025
Report for Styal Prison and Young Offender Institution
Summary
Located near Wilmslow, Cheshire, Styal is a multifunctional prison and young offender institution taking women from courts in northern England and much of Wales. The prison can hold up to 454 women, from those remanded and still subject to court proceedings, to a maximum of 50 serving indeterminate sentences, including life. At the time of our inspection, 422 women were held either in the large houses – from a former orphanage, dating from the early 1900s – or in the newer but more traditional cellular accommodation of Waite Unit. Up to 25 women could be held in open conditions in a unit just outside the prison perimeter. Overall, this is a mixed report. While there was much to commend at Styal, safety and the quality of regime had both deteriorated since we last inspected in 2021, with outcomes in our healthy prison tests of safety and purposeful activity now ‘not sufficiently good’.