Wakefield inspection report 2023
Report for Wakefield Prison
Summary
Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire is one of the highest security prisons in the country. With a capacity for up to 750, it holds some of the more dangerous men in the prison system, including some high-risk category A prisoners. At the time of our inspection, almost all of those held were serving over 10 years and nearly half were serving indeterminate sentences including life. Traditionally, Wakefield has also held a preponderance of men convicted of the most serious sexual offences, and while the proportion of these prisoners had fallen since our last inspection, it remained at about 60% of the current population. The prison also has a close supervision centre (CSC), which holds some of the prison system’s most disruptive men. While we mention the facility in our report, we will report more fully and thematically on these types of units in due course.