North Sea Camp (HM Prison)
History
North Sea Camp opened as a borstal in 1935, having been established by a group of Borstal Trainees who had been marched cross-country from Stafford. They set up a campsite, and immediately began work building a sea wall to protect the site from the North Sea. Once this was complete, they began reclaiming land by building a further sea wall – that land then became the prison farm. Until the sale of adjacent land in 2004, the prison had the biggest prison farm in the United Kingdom, much of which was on land reclaimed from The Wash.
Abscondings
In August 2006, the BBC reported that 49 prisoners had absconded from North Sea Camp in the previous twelve months, and that a total of 339 had absconded since 1996. In 2009, two inmates convicted of rape absconded from North Sea Camp. The two were recaptured less than a week later. Paul Robson, who was jailed for life in 2000 for violent sexual assaults, and had been refused parole five times, absconded from the prison in February 2022. He was recaptured four days later.
Dispatches
In April 2007, Channel 4 TV's Dispatches documentary series broadcast film secretly recorded at North Sea Camp by a prisoner, Dafydd Evans. Evans's filming showed prisoners taking drugs and smuggling alcohol. He also demonstrated apparent weaknesses in the prison's security procedures and described the escape of a man with convictions for robbery and arson which he blamed on security failures and collusion by fellow prisoners. Lord Ramsbotham, a former Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, was quoted in the programme as saying: "It is not secure; it’s under-staffed, it’s under-resourced and you’ve got a lot of people who quite frankly should not be in those conditions. The system of sending people to these places has broken down." Responding to the programme, the Home Office said open prisons played an important role in rehabilitating offenders and all those transferred to such conditions were risk-assessed.
Inspection report
In November 2009, an inspection report from Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons stated that North Sea Camp Prison had improved. Inspectors praised the prison's safety record, and the amount of purposeful activity for inmates. However, the report called for the refurbishment of prison buildings and facilities, and further improvements to the prison regime for short-term inmates.
Notable prisoners
- Jeffrey Archer in 2001–2002.
- Gary Hart (guilty of causing the Selby rail crash) in 2003.
- Andrew Malkinson, wrongly convicted of rape in 2003.
References
- ^ Historic England. "Monument No. 1119677". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 24 January 2016.
- ^ "Number of prison escapes revealed". BBC News. 4 August 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
- ^ "Praise for jail after pair flee". BBC News. 3 November 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
- ^ "Rapist absconders back in custody". BBC News. 4 November 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
- ^ "Paul Robson hunt: On-the-run sex offender refused parole five times". BBC News. 15 February 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
- ^ "Paul Robson: Sex offender who fled HMP North Sea Camp recaptured". BBC News. 17 February 2022. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
- ^ "Undercover Prisoner". Channel 4 News. 2 April 2007. Archived from the original on 8 July 2007. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
- ^ Foggo, Daniel; Watt, Holly (1 April 2007). "Rapists go early to open prisons". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
- ^ "Praise for jail after pair flee". BBC News. 3 November 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
- ^ "Rapist absconders back in custody". BBC News. 4 November 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
- ^ "Archer moved from open prison". BBC News. 26 September 2002. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ "Selby crash driver's jail release". BBC News. 12 July 2004. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ "He spent 17 years in jail for rape. Now another man has been arrested for the crime". The Independent. 24 January 2023. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
