HM Prison Aberdeen (formerly known as Craiginches) was a medium-security prison, located in the
city of Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeenshire, but is now separate from the council area of Aberdeenshire. Aberd ...
, Scotland. The prison was managed by the
Scottish Prison Service
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) () is an executive agency of the Scottish Government tasked with managing prisons and Young Offender Institutions.
The Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, currently Teresa Medhurst, is responsible ...
. Known as one of the most
overcrowded prison
Prison overcrowding in the United States is a condition that occurs when the number of inmates in a correctional facility exceeds its designed capacity. Over the last 40 years, the number of persons held in prisons and jails in the United States p ...
s in Scotland, it had a design capacity of 155 and was contracted to hold up to 230 prisoners. However, on the first day of an inspection in January 2009 it held 264 prisoners. In 2014, it was closed in favour of the new
HMP Grampian
HMP & YOI Grampian is a high security prison in Peterhead, Scotland. It is the only such facility in the northeast of the country, having replaced the former HMPs in Aberdeen and Peterhead in 2014. It is the newest jail in Scotland and amongst ...
and the site was redeveloped as a housing estate.
Henry John Burnett
Henry John Burnett (5 January 1942 – 15 August 1963) was the last man to be hanged in Scotland, and the first in Aberdeen since 1891. He was tried at the high court in Aberdeen from 23 to 25 July 1963 for the murder of merchant seaman Thomas G ...
, the last man to be executed in Scotland, was
hanged
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
inside the prison on 15 August 1963.
See also
*
List of prisons in the United Kingdom
List of prisons in the United Kingdom is a list of all 141 current prisons as of 2024 in the United Kingdom spread across the three UK legal systems of England and Wales (122 prisons), Scotland, (15 prisons) and Northern Ireland (4 prisons). Al ...
References
External links
Scottish Prison Service, Aberdeen2004 HM Inspectorate of Prisons Report2009 HM Inspectorate of Prisons Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aberdeen (Hm Prison)
1890 establishments in Scotland
Prisons in Scotland
Execution sites in Scotland
Buildings and structures in Aberdeen
2014 disestablishments in Scotland
Government buildings completed in 1890