visit styal prison

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https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/09/15/you-can-now-book-a-prison-visit-online/

You can now book a prison visit online

Booking a prison visit should be simple and straightforward. Until now that was far from the case. Booking a visit required both prisoner and visitor to jump through hoops: paper forms and drawn-out phone calls. And if the visit date turned out to be impossible, they had to start all over again.

Now you can book a visit online . It takes about 5 minutes. Before, picking an available date was pot luck. Now there's a date-picker that lets you select 3 possible slots instead of 1. It’s a straight-forward service with user-needs at its heart but, if you get stuck, you can call the prison's visits booking line and someone will help you with the booking.

Here's a very short film we've made about it:

By making it easier to book visits, prisoners will see more of their friends and family. Evidence suggests this will help their rehabilitation. Transformation isn't just about websites.

The service was built by the Ministry of Justice, with a combined team from the National Offender Management Service, HM Prison Service and MoJ Digital Services.

For more of the story behind this service, read Mike Bracken's account of his trip to HMP Rochester or check out the service’s transformation page .

Join the conversation on Twitter , and don't forget to sign up for email alerts .

You may also be interested in:

• Prison visit booking: using digital analytics to inform alpha development
• Making prison visits easier to book
• Meet the Transformation team

Sharing and comments

Share this page, 20 comments.

Comment by Pauline posted on 23 August 2015

How do you find out the prisoners number??? so you can go ahead with online booking of a visit?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 24 August 2015

You can find a prisoner using this service: https://www.gov.uk/find-prisoner However it will be the prisoner's responsibility to get in touch with you to let you know their prison number etc.

Comment by linda posted on 15 August 2015

This service does not appear to work this is day 2 trying to use it

Comment by Olivia posted on 30 July 2015

Hi, If a visit is booked and someone cant make it, is it possible to change the name of one of the people to someone else?

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 30 July 2015

It's best to contact the prison directly if this happens. You can find contact details here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder

Thanks, Louise

Comment by Paige posted on 28 July 2015

Hi my partner was sent to nottingham today, I was on his previous list 4 months ago for a visit. Will that still be on the system all will it have to he put through again if so how long does it take to be approved for a visit? Thanks Paige.

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 29 July 2015

You might want to get in touch with the prison first before booking a visit. You can find the contact details of the prison here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder

Comment by Debs posted on 27 July 2015

Hello Is there a list of prisons where online booking can't be used?

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 28 July 2015

According to the information on this page: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits , you can arrange a visit to any prison in England and Wales through this service. If you're visiting someone in Northern Ireland or Scotland you'll need to contact the prison directly.

This link also lists the type of visits that are not covered by the online service: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits so you need to get in touch with the prison directly.

Hope that's helpful.

Comment by c.steer posted on 26 July 2015

So how do I find the booking form to fill in I am new to computers

Comment by Louise Duffy posted on 27 July 2015

Here's the link to the booking form: https://www.gov.uk/prison-visits

You'll need this information to complete the form:

prisoner number prisoner’s date of birth dates of birth for all visitors coming with you make sure the person you’re visiting has added you to their visitor list

Hope that's useful.

Comment by Shawnaa posted on 09 May 2015

i have a visit booked which i did online but i do not have a visiting order woll the prison let me in?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 11 May 2015

Your identity will be checked on arrival to make sure you’re on the visitor list.

Comment by jessicca posted on 27 January 2015

What happens after you book the visit and its confirmed by email do you need the visiting order ?

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 29 January 2015

The Visiting Order (VO) number is generated by the booking system, it is included in your confirmation email and you will need this to change or cancel a booking.

However, if you're visiting a prison the guidance is that you only need your ID, not the VO number. If when you visit the prison you are asked for the VO number you should report this via the Contact Us link on the Prison Visits Booking form.

I hope that helps.

Comment by Ilysa Mcnally posted on 18 November 2014

How late in advance can I book e.g. book a visit today (Tuesday) for the Sunday coming???

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 19 November 2014

Hi Ilysa. Thanks for your question. A visit needs to be booked 3 working days in advance. So in this case, the visit request would have to be no later than Tuesday to allow for a visit on Sunday.

Comment by carole posted on 23 October 2014

How far in advance can you book visits

Comment by Carrie Barclay posted on 23 October 2014

Hi Carole. You can book up to 28 days in advance. Thanks for your question.

Comment by kimberly posted on 16 August 2015

does anyone know how to cancel a visit online?

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Behind the gate – the life and infamous times of britain’s prisons: this month hmp styal, noel smith - insidetime.

• 1st March 2019

HMP Styal is a closed prison for female adults and young offenders in Styal, Cheshire. The prison is operated by HMP and has a population of 486 prisoners.

The prison was opened in 1962 and occupies the site of a former orphanage called Styal Cottage Homes. This was originally a place for destitute children from the Manchester area from 1898 until 1956 before the site was closed. It reopened 6 years later as a prison to house the overflow from HMP Strangeways and the first prisoners in 1962 were women who had been transferred in from the Manchester prison.

In 1983 the prison began holding female young offenders as well as the more hardened and long-term female convicts. In 1999 a wing for unsentenced remand prisoners was added to the estate after the closure of the Risley Remand Centre. The addition of this wing increased the size of the prison by 60%.

In June 2003 the prison was singled-out as having one of the worst records for suicides in England & Wales. The Howard League for Penal Reform called for an independent inquiry into the prison, stating that ‘bullying, drugs and overcrowding’ were probable causes for the high number of deaths. The prison had a bad report from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in 2004 which said that ‘inmates at Styal Prison were being put at risk by a lack of support during drug withdrawal and with mental health problems.’ The report also expressed ‘concern’ over the use of ‘special cells’ to hold disruptive prisoners, including self-harmers.

But the HMCIP report did praise the staff/prisoner relations, education provision and resettlement services. The Chief Inspector of Prisons also said that race relations at Styal were ‘among the best’ she had seen.

Another report by the Independent Monitoring Board at the prison in 2018 reported that – ‘Overall, prisoners are treated fairly and decently, but maintenance issues are a major cause for concern, with long delays in completing many items of routine maintenance as well as major projects to remedy the poor state of the mainly Victorian buildings.’

A 2018 report by HMCIP noted that 72% of the women at Styal reported having a mental health problem, there had been 735 incidents of self-harm in the 6 months prior to March 2018, an average of 125 incidents a month, 65% of the women released (who were not on Home Detention Curfew) did not have sustainable accommodation, and some of the women at Styal had been in and out of custody up to 11 times in 12 months.

In 2006 the prison was featured in a BBC 2 documentary called ‘Women on the Edge – the Truth about Styal Prison’. As an interesting sidebar, the reality television star (Big Brother, Wannabe, Nuts TV) and glamour model Chanelle Hayes (pictured) was born in the prison on 11th of November 1987 when her mother was a serving prisoner at Styal.

Today, Styal is a closed prison for both sentenced and remand prisoners. There is also a facility for mothers with babies up to the age of 18 months. The education at the prison is provided by The Manchester College and includes courses in hairdressing, information technology, art & design, ESOL, catering, Industrial cleaning, painting & decorating and Open University support.

Other facilities include library, gym and multi-faith chaplaincy. A Visitors Centre, run by Cheshire Support Group, with play area and refreshments is available.

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Prisons · Cheshire

Overcrowding.

Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA): 453

Population: 430

Originally built as an orphanage in 1898 and housing Hungarian refugees in the 1950s, Styal was opened as a closed women’s prison in 1963. It serves courts in the north-west of England and north Wales. Styal holds a complicated mix of women from those remanded by the courts, women serving both short and long sentences and those with indeterminate sentences.

Read Styal’s latest inspection report here.

About this information

Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA) is the prison service’s own measure of how many prisoners can be held in decent and safe accommodation. Any occupancy above CNA means that the prison in question is overcrowded.

Restricted status: women placed on restricted status are deemed to pose a high risk to the public if they were to escape. They are held in closed women’s prisons, and sometimes placed in the segregation unit.

Closed prisons: the majority of women’s prisons are closed prisons. Women who are assessed as not being suitable for open conditions are held in these prisons.

Open prisons: there are two open prisons for women, Askham Grange and East Sutton Park. They hold women who have been assessed as posing a low risk.

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What's good in prisons across England & Wales

Managers said staff were ‘caring’ and reported good relationships with prisoners, and among staff of all disciplines. They said a high proportion of staff had completed trauma informed training and this had had a very positive impact on management of the women and relationships with them. They rated the Prison Council and the Mother & Baby unit was ‘fantastic’. They highlighted the ‘excellent’ care team, and support for staff after an incident, as well as monthly training days, regular full staff briefings, staff recognition, yoga & meditation for staff, six-monthly staff well-being days and twice-yearly staff-family events. The grounds, including trees, gardens and ducks, were a positive for all.

The Officers said relations with the women were good and valued the full integration of vulnerable prisoners across the establishment. They highlighted reception and induction, and the role of staff and peer mentors in caring for new prisoners, and the monthly family days (run by POPS and Phoenix Futures) and twice-yearly lifer days. Recycling Lives, who provide housing and employment on release, were ‘fantastic’, and the Clink restaurant, staffed by ROTL’d women, and links with local employers, were highlighted too, as were the gym, and the PT qualification they offer, and the ‘excellent’ hair & beauty course. Staff, too, valued the grounds and gardens, and felt they had a positive impact on everyone.

The women valued the Enabling Environment provided by a ‘semi-open’ regime, living in houses rather than wings, catering for themselves, and getting themselves to where they need to be. They too highlighted reception and induction, and the staff and peers working there, and valued the range of peer mentors generally, as well as the elected wing reps (who meet bi-monthly with SMT). And they also rated Recycling Lives, The Clink, and links with outside employers, and agreed about the positive impact of the grounds (including the ducks!).

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Guide to Booking Your First Prison Visit

Visiting a loved one in prison can be an emotionally-wrought experience, especially if this is your first time. It’s normal to feel nervous. Here is a comprehensive guide designed to help ease your concerns and answer your questions about booking your first prison visit in the UK:

The Basic Rules

Every prison in the UK has their own set of rules for visits. Generally, you are allowed a certain number of visits in a specified period.

Booking a Visit

You can’t just show up at the prison; you have to book your visitation in advance. The usual method for booking a visit is through the government’s official Prison Visits Booking website. You need to provide the prisoner’s name and prisoner number, and you would also have to provide your own personal details like your full name, contact number, and date of birth.

Visiting Order (VO)

Before visiting a prison, you need to receive a Visiting Order from the prisoner that you plan to visit. This rule, however, may vary depending on the prison’s individual visitation rules.

Identification

When you visit a prison, you’re required to provide a certain level of identification. This typically involves your passport or driving license and utility bills showing your current address. If you don’t provide the right ID, you may not be allowed to visit.

What You Can Bring

The rules about what you can bring into a prison are rigorous. You’re not expected to bring anything in, but if you do, it’s likely to be thoroughly searched.

Searching Process

When you enter a prison, you’ll be searched. This is an essential part of maintaining the safety and security of everyone involved.

• Physical Search: This involves a metal detector and possibly a pat down.
• Biometric Tests: These include fingerprint scans. Your biometric data gets destroyed after your visit.
• Drug Detection Dogs: You may also be screened by drug detection dogs.

What You Can Expect

During your time in the prison, you can expect to see your loved one in a communal area. Visits are typically supervised, though they try to give you some privacy. There might also be a limit to the physical contact you’re allowed with the prisoner.

Remember, prison visits are all about keeping connected with your loved one and offering them moral support. The rules might seem overwhelmingly strict, but they’re there to protect all parties involved. If you’ve got specific concerns or questions, do seek advice from the prison you’re planning to visit or a support network like the Prison Advice and Care Trust.

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HMP Styal: Women Behind Bars - Inside the prison that houses some of the country's worst child-killers

The 'mother of all prisons' will be explored in a new Channel 5 documentary

• 16:52, 17 AUG 2022
• Updated 16:58, 17 AUG 2022

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HMP Styal is the subject of a new Channel 5 documentary that will air on Wednesday, August 17. The hour-long film will see former employees and ex-inmates document their time at the prison, which is located in Wilmslow in Cheshire. The prison, itself, houses some of the country’s worst female offenders, including some of the most dreaded child murderers.

Perhaps one of the most renowned prisoners at HMP Styal is Savannah Brockhill - the killer of innocent toddler, Star Hobson . The one-time Mixed Martial Arts fighter has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years for the crime. Brockhill's "remorseless" self description of 'number one psycho' meant that she was segregated at Waite Wing in the prison.

Waite Wing is an area of the prison that has been specially designed to house women who have committed the worst of crimes and therefore, require stricter supervision. Two ex-inmates speak about the horrific conditions they endured during their time on the Wing.

Read more: Flight MH370: the Vanishing the true story behind the new Channel 5 documentary

Describing the Wing, the first inmate says: “It’s basically a big Wing, two levels. There’s about 80 cells on each side. It was a 23 hour bang up, you could get out for an hour association at night where everyone did what they needed to do - shower, make phone calls and that’s it.” The inmate then described some of the conditions they endured at Waite Wing, adding: “The state of affairs on the Wing in itself was just disgraceful. I mean, mattresses full of blood, I caught scabies from the showers. There were nit combs full of nits. It was dirty and disgusting."

Meanwhile, someone else who spent time on the Wing added: “It’s a dive because obviously there are a lot of women who are detoxing, women with mental health problems. There’s a lot of paedophiles, murderers and child killers.

"People would be walking down the landing and throwing up because it was that bad," the former inmate continues, painting a horrifying picture of the conditions in the prison. This imagery would be a stark comparison to the picture painted by Savannah Brockhill, who reportedly called her cell at HMP Styal "cushy", according to The Daily Mail .

A jail source from the Daily Star Sunday revealed that the killer has "admirers" that send cash and fan mail. The source revealed: “It is a sad ­reflection on society that some members of the public enjoying writing to a killer like this – and even rewarding her with gifts.

“A lot are from admirers. It beggars belief really, but Savannah is loving the attention and almost thinks of herself as a celebrity and prison pin-up.”

Savannah's admiration, however, was not shared by prisoners. One person who was at Styal at the same time, said that prisoners would regularly try to "get to [Savannah]" but were unsuccessful, as she always had "four or five officers" to protect her at all times. "She would always walk around with a big smile on her face because no one could get her," the prisoner says as she relayed her disgust.

Brockhill, however, is not the only child killer at Styal and there are many others like her at the prison. "We're mixing with women who have killed and raped children. It's not good, especially with women because they are so protective as mums," describes another former inmate, who also says that she remembers meeting a woman who had a dead baby's skeleton in their wardrobe. She adds: "They tried to put her in a house that I was in and she didn't last half-an-hour, she was off. No one would have it. How can you have the skeleton of a baby in your wardrobe?"

See the full story of HMP Styal: Women Behind Bars when it airs on Channel 5 on Thursday, August 17 at 9pm

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General Information, HMP Styal

Styal became a prison in the 1960’s and HMP Styal is the only female prison establishment in the North West. Styal has a mother and baby unit where mothers can retain their children until they attain the age of 18 months.

Accommodation

There are 16 detached Victorian houses, with mainly shared accommodation for approximately 20 women each. Some have specialist functions.

• Waite Wing – First night centre/ RCU and normal accommodation
• A1 – Bronte – currently closed and waiting to be reopened following refurbishment. A2 – Gaskell – normal accommodation
• B1 – Acorn – mother and baby unit
• B2 – Bruce – Incentivised substance-free living Houses
• B3 to E3 – general population
• H1 – Valentina – A quiet space for prisoners requiring a temporary location for timeout and respite.
• Care & separation unit – a small unit for segregated prisoners

New Development at Styal

In late January 2015 the Ministry of Justice opened a additional unit at Styal,, Bollinwood House. This is an open unit outside the gate holding 25 women as an open wing located just outside the main prison. This unit is a “stepping stone” for those nearing release to live in open conditions to enable them to better re-intergrate into normal society

Return to Styal

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The brutal reality of life inside a women's prison: former inmate describes what it's REALLY like

"It's not Bad Girls, it's sad girls"

• 16:00, 26 AUG 2018

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Sitting in the back of a police van on her way to HMP Styal, Sally Lundon had a very clear picture of what she thought prison would be like.

Facing a 20-year jail sentence, she thought life inside a women's prison was going to be "orange jumpsuits and hard drugs".

The brutal reality of the prison system Sally was presented with was very different - something she describes as "more sad girls than Bad Girls".

She spent nearly 11 years behind bars for a conviction she’s still fighting to this day. She’s seen women hospitalised for horrific acts of self harm and mothers dragged kicking and screaming from their children on final visits before they are adopted.

Her account of more than a decade behind bars paints a picture of countless women being failed by the system and stuck in an institution that failed to rehabilitate them.

In a frank and honest interview about her life behind bars, Sally laid bare the stark reality of what it's really like inside a women's prison.

*Sally Lundon is not her real name - but the stigma of such a lengthy prison sentence still follows Sally and her family around to this day.

Her name has been changed to protect her identity and the identities of her children and wider family.

"When a woman goes in she faces losing everything"

Sally Lundon is a force of nature. She could spend hours telling you stories about her time inside, the horrors she saw and the state of this country’s prisons system.

Having seen the real impact custodial sentences have on women prisoners, Sally was left feeling it didn't have the desired affect on offenders.

She explained how prison affects women differently to men - and how it can often leave them worse off than when they were sent down.

Speaking to the ECHO, Sally said: "There's an absolutely massive difference between men and women. When a man goes in there's usually a woman outside who will keep the house and look after the kids. But a woman goes in she faces losing everything.

"If they spend one day more than 13 weeks in prison, they lose their home. If they have six months they lose their home.

"They can lose their children either to foster care or if it's a long enough sentence they will go into adoption.

"On a regular basis you'd see it and it's inhumane - they will say goodbye to them on a visit and they will never see that child again. They will have that happening with solicitors present.

"If they lose their home they will lose their possessions because they can't afford storage. A woman can go in for a minor offence and loses absolutely everything."

"People would swallow batteries... they would use everything they could to hurt themselves"

During her 11 years behind bars, Sally saw a number of changes to life inside the country's prison system.

Some things, however, remained hauntingly similar.

Throughout her time spent at HMP Styal, Sally said one of her overwhelming memories is of the prevalence of self-harm by women inside.

She said: "One of the biggest things I saw was self-harm. They lose control of their children, they lose control over everything that happens to them and that's why they start self-harming because it's the only area where they are able to control something themselves.

"It's a cry for help, not attention.

"Normally, self-harm is cutting arms but people would swallow batteries, rub their skin off using whatever they could get their hands on. They would use everything they could get hold of to hurt themselves. The levels of self-harm are awful."

She recounted a story of one inmate who was deprived of any items that could be used to hurt herself, but still managed to self-harm so severely she was left needing blood transfusions every week.

The facts back this up.

The Prison Reform Trust produces an annual Bromley Briefing report on the state of the country's prison system.

This year, the summer briefing showed that rates of self-harm among women are at the highest level for six years.

Women also account for a massively disproportionate amount of the self-harm going on in prisons. In 2017, 19% of all self-harm incidents in prisons were carried out by women, despite women making up only 5% of the total prison population.

"They don't need to be punished because their whole life is a punishment"

Sally expected prison was going to be like something out of Bad Girls - hardened female offenders, fights and dangerous characters lurking down every corridor.

In reality, the women she shared her years behind bars with were overwhelmingly victims in their own right.

While it may be hard for many people to see convicted criminals as victims, the fact is that female offenders have routinely suffered horrific abuse in their lives.

A staggering 57% of women in prison said they had suffered domestic abuse on the outside, with 53% having experienced emotional, physical or sexual abuse as children.

For many women, being institutionalised in prison comes after a lifetime of being passed around the care system - with 31% of women in prison having spent time in local authority care as a child.

Speaking about the women she met in prison, Sally said: "The majority of women just need help, they don't need to be punished because their whole life is a punishment.

"There is so much prior abuse, they've had no childhood a lot of the time."

She added: "I felt like I had gone back centuries when I went in. I didn't know that women went in these situations - I didn't realise how many people were victims of abuse. The levels of abuse are horrific.

"If we as a society have any form of sympathy we should help them not punish them. A lot of women deserve to be there for life, but the rest are victims themselves."

Smuggling drugs into prison in nappies - the desperate lengths women go to in order to score inside

Drug abuse in prisons is a growing concern - with 31% of women reported that it was easy to get drugs in their prison.

Sally said she saw massive drug abuse during her time inside, with women smuggling drugs in by any means necessary - including inside babies' nappies.

She also saw the growing prevalence of Spice in the prison system.

The banned substance, which is feared to be crippling the prison system, was confiscated from men's prison HMP Liverpool 11 times in 2017 - a huge increase from three discoveries by staff in 2015.

Sally said: "If a woman who goes into prison doesn't take heroin but smokes a more recreational drug, they get drug tested going into prison and it stays in their system for 28 days. Then if a test comes back positive they will get more time.

"A lot of women ended up on heroin because it washes out in three days.

"Towards the end of my sentence spice was becoming a real problem - we saw it a lot. It was later on but there's always going to be drugs in prisons, and it's one of the biggest causes of bullying.

"I don't think they will ever keep [drugs] out. Some of the ways women try to get them into prisons, in babies' nappies and that, it is just horrific."

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “New psychoactive substances (NPS) are a game changer for prison safety, and this account reinforces the scale of the challenge.

“We are addressing this head on, and we recently announced a £30 million investment in prison security, are rolling out body scanners and phone-blocking technology and spending £14 million to tackle organised crime.

“We have also launched five pilots, shifting female offenders from prisons to women’s centres which focus on the full range of support services and cut reoffending.”

Sally also fears the way in which the justice system fails to effectively rehabilitate and protect female offenders at the end of their sentences can leave them vulnerable to drug problems on the outside.

She said many women who serve short custodial sentences are "kicked out with nowhere to go" and very little money to their name.

This means they can end up in hostels or unstable housing situations, which Sally fears are "rife with drugs".

"They aren't shoplifting to get a kick out of it - it's to put food on the table"

Women are overwhelmingly sent to prison for non-violent crimes or habitual petty offences - meaning many serve prison sentences of 12 months or less.

An overwhelming majority of women, standing at 83%, entering prison have committed a non-violent crime.

This means more women serving short sentences for lesser offences - and it's risen sharply. In 1993, only a third of women given custodial sentence were for less than six months, in 2017 it was nearly double this at 62%.

Sharon Cooper manages the Women's Turnaround Service at Person Shaped Support (PSS) - a service which aims to support and rehabilitate women within their local communities, whether they received custodial terms, suspended sentences or community orders.

While Sharon accepts that prison does have a role to play in rehabilitating female offenders, she's seen the brutal impact short sentences can have on women.

For mothers getting sent to prison for a short spell, they can come out in a worse situation than they went in - but without having had the time and attention inside to fully address the reasons they offended.

Speaking to the ECHO about the trends she has seen, Sharon said: "Prison does have a place for some offences but what you find for the vast majority of women getting custodial sentences, it's for non-violent crimes and they're getting a short sentence that has a massive impact on them.

"If they're the sole carer for children, they will have to either go with other family or if they aren't around then the local authority gets involved.

"If you're going into prison for eight weeks you could lose your home because your access to benefits will change. If you're in custody you could be coming out homeless and with no benefits.

"To give a woman a short sentence doesn't look at the reasons why she's offended."

Sharon feels the justice system needs to better acknowledge the reasons why women offend, rather than locking them up for a few weeks and sending them back out into the world ill-equipped to cope with life on the outside.

She said: "If you work with them in the community it's looking at the reasons why. A lot of the time they're imprisoned for such a short amount of time it doesn't address what the causes are.

"They might have housing debts so they might be paying back payments of benefits and are playing catch-up with kids uniforms and food and they might be going 'I've got no food'.

"They're not going out to shoplift because they get some kind of kick or buzz out of it, it's food on the table for the children."

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Styal prison launches new open unit

Justice Minister Simon Hughes opens new accommodation which will act as a stepping stone back into the community for female prisoners nearing release.

Justice Minister Simon Hughes today (29 January 2015) opened new accommodation just outside the gates of Styal prison, which will act as a stepping stone back into the community for female prisoners nearing release.

Time spent in open prisons affords low risk prisoners the opportunity to find work, re-establish family ties, reintegrate into the community and ensure housing needs are met before their release. These are essential components for successful resettlement and an important factor in protecting the public.

However until today, a female offender nearing release from custody would need to move to one of only 2 women’s open prisons, potentially having to move a long distance away from their homes, families and local community.

That is why the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is reconfiguring the women’s prison estate, to keep women closer to home by providing smaller open prison units next to existing ‘closed’ prisons.

HMP Styal is the first prison to launch its open accommodation, with a house just beyond the prison gate which will house up to 25 offenders.

Justice Minister Simon Hughes said:

The launch of the open accommodation at Styal is the first step of a vital reform we are making to the women’s prison estate – helping female offenders prepare for their release by testing them in open conditions, and at the same time keeping them as close to home as possible. This will mean that before leaving custody, they can already start to make the local links they need on their release – such as finding job opportunities, housing, or other local services. These are essential factors to helping offenders turn away from crime and change their lives for good.

All offenders being located in open conditions have been risk assessed and categorised as being of low risk to the public and a low risk of reoffending.

Notes to Editors

• Styal prison is a women’s local prison near Wilmslow in Cheshire and serves the Courts of North West England and Wales. The prison has capacity to hold 460 women in closed conditions and up to a further 25 in open conditions.
• Of the 12 women’s prisons, only East Sutton Park (Kent) and Askham Grange (Yorkshire) are open prisons. Styal is the first ‘closed’ prison to develop open accommodation alongside the main establishment.
• For more information contact the MoJ Press Office newsdesk on 020 3334 3536 and follow us @MoJPress on Twitter.

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Women prisoners: self-harm, suicide attempts and the struggle for survival

Clive Chatterton is still haunted by the sights and sounds he remembers from his time as governor of Styal, one of 13 women's jails in England and Wales.

There was the 20-year-old on remand for theft who repeatedly slashed her arms, then attempted to hang herself before setting fire to her body. When taken to hospital, she tried drinking a bottle of toxic disinfectant. Her last failed suicide bid involved swallowing a tampon and drinking water in the hope that the cotton would swell and obstruct her windpipe.

Chatteron, 58, has countless other stories, most of them involving inmates who were so mentally ill he wondered how they had ended up in prison. One woman, convicted of shoplifting, lived in a forest from where she would scavenge food to survive. "There is no other way that I can describe her other than appearing as a frightened wild animal, totally uncommunicative and generally unresponsive," he said.

Now retired, Chatterton admitted being scarred by the experience of running Styal in Cheshire from 2009 unil last October. Self-harming, he observed, was frequently the single element of their lives where the women could exert control.

Rachel Halford, director of campaign group Women in Prison, said: "They have no power, which mirrors their previous experiences of abuse and neglect. As a woman in prison told us: 'Putting the blade in and watching the blood come down is the only time I can control something that's happening in here and stop the pain'."

Campaigners say that incidents of self-harm among women prisoners are increasing. Government statistics reveal 10,446 cases of self-harm during 2009, rising to 12,663 the following year. Analysis by Women in Prison estimates that the figure is likely to rise above 13,000 – more than 35 a day. There are 4,100 women in prison, only5% of inmates, yet they account for almost half of self-harm incidents. Chatterton estimated that six in 10 of those sent to Styal have a significant mental health problem.

The Keller Unit, where the prison's most troubled women are kept under increased supervision, has only 10 places. It was always full, said Chatterton, who admitted he had developed "growing concerns" over the facilities available for helping the mentally ill.

His disquiet was recently corroborated by the chief inspector of prisons on a visit to Styal.

Nick Hardwick, a former chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, found the plight of women inside Keller "more shocking and distressing than anything I have yet seen on an inspection". His report, delivered last year, described prison officers who "often had to use force to remove ligatures from women intent on harming themselves".

The year before Chatterton arrived at the prison, Lisa Marley, 32, who suffered from a personality disorder, was sent to Keller. Within 48 hours, she was found hanged in her cell. The inquest heard the coroner criticise Styal for its care of the mentally ill and cell design with a point to which a ligature could be attached. CCTV showed an officer laughing and joking as Marley, who was awaiting trial for assault, received emergency medical treatment inside the cell where she was found.

One prison source, a frequent visitor to female jails, cited a case last November involving a 19-year-old on remand for nine months for a shoplifting and public order offence. She described an emaciated figure with a mental age of eight. By the time she visited her in jail, the teenager had been on hunger strike for more than a month, surviving on 15 sips of water a day. A constant rota of prison officers was required to avert any attempt to kill herself.

The source added: "It was like talking to a child. For nine months she had been in a cell with no sheets in case she used the linen to hang herself, no books, no TV, no radio, because she would use any item to kill herself. The walls were spattered with blood where she had stood and banged her head repeatedly to try and commit suicide.

"She'd been failed by the education system, the health system and in her mind she had no option but to die. Her parents had visited her just once because she was so far away. She clearly needed to be in hospital, but there were no available beds. In nine months there had been no psychiatric assessment."

A 22-year-old inmate, Emily, described by Julie Marriott, northern manager for Women in Prison, as "very typical", on account of her frequent jail terms and background of parental neglect and abuse by family members, crystallised the reasons why custody offered no solution to so many women.

At the age of 12 Emily was forced by her family to work in a brothel, where she was raped by 10 men a day "before tea time". She escaped on to the streets of Greater Manchester and again became immersed in the often violent underworld of the sex trade.

The average literacy and numeracy level among women in prison, say campaigners, is comparable to a young child at secondary school. For many, prostitution is one of the few guaranteed means of survival.

The short sentences given to such women for often minor offences exasperate those on the frontline. In one two-month period at Styal, Chatterton counted 34 women serving sentences of 12 days or fewer.

Campaigners say their use can not be justified on financial grounds. The average annual cost of a woman's prison place is £43,000 compared with an intensive community order that costs £10,000-£15,000 while delivering significantly lower reoffending rates.

"If only 30% of women currently imprisoned for very minor offences were diverted from custody, then the associated financial savings would be huge," Chatterton said.

• Prisons and probation
• The Observer
• Mental health
• UK criminal justice

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All About The Duke Of Westminster's 3 Sisters

It may not have been one of the most iconic royal weddings in history , but the nuptials of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, and Olivia Henson was a star-studded affair featuring the crème de la crème of Britain's upper class. Tying the knot at Chester Cathedral in June 2024, the couple's fairytale wedding satiated the public's thirst for noble pageantry following a marked lull in royal weddings.

Among the pomp, the surprise protests, and of course, all the worst-dressed stars at the Duke of Westminster's wedding , there were Hugh's three stylishly understated sisters. While Hugh has garnered much publicity since succeeding the dukedom in 2016 — notably becoming the richest millennial in the U.K. – his sisters, Lady Tamara, Lady Edwina, and Lady Viola Grosvenor, have kept pretty low profiles.

Despite being born into an esteemed aristocratic family, the Grosvenor sisters live relatively normal lives away from the glare of the public eye. But while Tamara, Edwina, and Viola choose to remain on the down low, that doesn't mean they don't lead fascinating lives. Let's learn all about the Duke of Westminster's three sisters.

Despite being elder, Lady Tamara and Lady Edwina didn't inherit their father's fortune

The British aristocracy has a long history of following primogeniture, meaning the eldest male child, regardless of having elder sisters, is automatically the family heir. This system means aristocratic women have not been allowed to inherit titles, and by extension the family fortune, from their fathers. Though this may seem like a relic of a bygone age, the Duke of Westminster's daughters suffered the consequences of such traditions upon his death.

When the former Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor, died in 2016, his son, Hugh Grosvenor, immediately succeeded the role. Aged just 25 at the time, Hugh inherited his father's vast £9 billion (around $11.3 billion) fortune and large swathes of the elite Mayfair and Belgravia areas of London. Accordingly, the newly appointed Duke of Westminster enjoyed his billions despite the fact that two of his sisters — Lady Tamara and Lady Edwina Grosvenor — are older than him. His sisters did, however, each reportedly inherit a modest £20,000 (around $25,200) from their father.

Following Hugh's 2024 wedding, there were renewed calls for a change in the archaic aristocratic tradition, with the campaign group, Daughters' Rights, taking their fight to Parliament. "We would hope the Duke of Westminster would support our fight for equality ... The Westminsters strike me as the kind of modern aristocratic family that would support the idea of a first born daughter enjoying the same inheritance rights and benefits as a firstborn son," campaigner Carew Pole told The Telegraph .

Lady Tamara's wedding reportedly inspired King Charles III to propose to Queen Camilla

Born in 1979, Lady Tamara Grosvenor is the Duke of Westminster's oldest sister. She was the first of the siblings to get married, tying the knot to her childhood friend and King Charles III's godson, Edward van Cutsem, in 2004. The pair wed at Chester Cathedral in a lavish, royal-studded ceremony; Queen Elizabeth II was in attendance, along with Prince William and Prince Harry. The royal crowd attracted much attention from locals. "I thought Lady Tamara looked beautiful. It was such a big occasion that it was worth standing out in the cold and rain for," Chester local Linda Jones told the  Crewe Chronicle .

The wedding was not without drama, though. Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales, was angry over seating arrangements that placed Queen Camilla several rows behind him. Subsequently, he threatened that he wouldn't attend Lady Tamara and Edward's big day unless Camilla was shown some respect. The couple ended up being no-shows at the ceremony.

Lady Tamara's wedding reportedly ended up inspiring Charles to pop the question to his lady love. "Protocol dictated that Camilla and Charles were seated separately at the wedding," said a source, per the Belfast Telegraph . "Charles was furious. He announced their engagement three months later." King Charles and Queen Camilla's wedding then took place just 5 months after Tamara and Edward's nuptials.

Lady Tamara has been in trouble with the law

The usually media-shy Lady Tamara Grosvenor found herself in the spotlight in 2017 when she was caught speeding. She accumulated three points on her license as a result of the offense.

Then, in 2019, she made headlines when she was again accused of speeding near her family estate. She failed to confirm to police whether she was driving the speeding vehicle, claiming that she had too many cars to recall which one she had been driving. "We have six fleet vehicles under my name," she reportedly told the magistrates, per the Daily Mail . "We have a farm business and it's easier to have cars employees can drive. Whichever car is spare they take ... I simply don't know if I was the driver at the time. I didn't want to lie on the paper."

Appearing in court, she later admitted to prosecutors that she hadn't done everything possible to help police with their investigation to identify the driver. Accordingly, she was fined over £700 (around $880) and received a further six points on her license.

Lady Edwina is Princess Diana's goddaughter

Princess Diana's relationship with the royal family was rocky at best — and outright toxic at its worst — but the late princess was close to her godchildren. Born in 1981, Lady Edwina Grosvenor became the Duke of Westminster's middle sister and the first of Diana's 17 godchildren. The beloved royal was present at Lady Edwina's christening in 1982, and at the time, Edwina was even considered as a future bride for Prince William, who was born months later.

Following Diana's tragic death in 1997, it was revealed that the people's princess loved her godchildren dearly. Her will was modified to ensure that her godchildren were each left something to remember her by. "The trustees have decided on the items for each of the children," solicitor Martyn Gowar said, per The Independent . "There are a range of things like pictures, nice pieces of china and some special photographs. They are not really things of monetary value and in the context of a [£21 million] estate they are insignificant. They are purely of sentimental value."

Lady Edwina is passionate about prison reform

Growing up, Lady Edwina Grosvenor slowly became aware of her privilege. She was first exposed to inequality when her father made her visit a drug rehabilitation clinic when she was 12. "I was just absolutely blown away," she recalled to  The Times . "I wasn't horrified, I didn't think, 'That's disgusting.' I remember thinking, 'Why aren't we taught this in school?'"

But it was during a gap year trip to a prison in Nepal that she found her calling in life. "I became fascinated by the idea of people being born into different families and the way that that can determine their life journeys," she told The Guardian . "After working in the prison in Nepal I knew I had found what I wanted to do." Thus her work as a passionate prison reform advocate was born. After attending Northumbria University to study sociology and criminology, she worked at HM Prison Styal, a U.K. women's prison that had a bleak record on prisoner suicide, and then HM Prison Garth, where she worked closely with the Restorative Justice program.

Lady Edwina also founded Chair of One Small Thing, a prison reform charity. Speaking to Social and Sustainable Capital , she explained that she believes in offering an alternative to prison for female offenders. "The number of women sent to prison for minor offenses is disproportionately high," she said. "Only one in five women will have committed a violent offense compared to one in three in the general prison population."

Dan Snow, Lady Edwina's husband, is a celebrity historian

In 2010, Lady Edwina Grosvenor wed Dan Snow, a celebrity historian and cousin of vaunted British journalist Jon Snow. Despite her noble lineage, Lady Edwina opted to have a low-key wedding at Bishop's Lodge in Liverpool, attended by a few close family members and friends. It was a rather fitting choice for the aristocrat who spends her days in U.K. prisons. "Neither of us has ever wanted a big white wedding," the couple said, per the Daily Mail . "We are delighted we have been free to plan a simple and relaxed wedding exactly as we wished, with our families around us."

In her interview with The Guardian, Grosvenor revealed that her husband is supportive of her prison reform work. "Dan is pretty relaxed about it," she said. "My parents and Dan are more proud of the fact that I'm actually doing something that I love doing and that means something to me. I love going to work — and they just see that."

The couple went on to welcome three children. In an interview with The Times , Snow revealed that he and Lady Edwina didn't want their children to grow up grossly rich, and the couple was therefore considering giving away their kids' inheritance to charity. "She has embarked on a career in philanthropy," Snow said of his wife. "She gives a lot of money away at the moment. The question is, does she give away everything?"

Lady Viola believes in giving back

Born in 1992, Lady Viola Grosvenor is the Duke of Westminster's youngest sister. Like her big sister, Lady Edwina Grosvenor, Viola has been active in philanthropic endeavors. She is a patron of St Vincent's Family Project, which provides support to vulnerable and struggling families in the Westminster area of London. The charity holds drop-in sessions for families dealing with poverty, mental health issues, and domestic violence, and provides arts therapy to marginalized children.

Moreover, Lady Viola been involved in anti-bullying initiatives, lending her time as an ambassador for the charity, Kidscape, which is supported by the Grosvenor family's The Westminster Foundation. Taking a hands-on approach at the charity, she led a workshop aimed to help children develop their confidence.

She's also an ambassador of the Cyberscene Project, which seeks to combat cyberbullying through theater. In 2017, Cyberscene staged a play, entitled "Cookies," at Theatre Royal Haymarket in London; along with singer Lily Allen, Viola supported the students involved in the play. According to a 2023 Grosvenor family profile in The Times , Viola now runs her own art therapy business.

Lady Viola married a British officer in secret

Being the baby of the family, Lady Viola Grosvenor was the last of the sisters to get married. In 2022, she wed Angus Roberts, an officer in the Royal Dragoon Guards, which is a regiment in the British army. However, the couple's wedding wasn't exactly a traditional royal wedding.

Lady Viola and Roberts chose to tie the knot in a secret ceremony at the hotel and resort owned by the latter's family, located on an island off the coast of Kenya. Photos were reportedly banned from the wedding, with Viola in particular wishing to keep her private life out of the limelight. "It was all very hush-hush," a source told the Daily Mail . "Viola didn't want any publicity at all." 

Following her nuptials, Lady Viola has reportedly adopted her husband's surname. "Viola is married and her surname is now Roberts," added a family friend, though no further details on the couple's hush-hush celebration have been revealed.

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