HM Prison Downview is a women's

closed category In category theory, a branch of mathematics, a closed category is a special kind of category. In a locally small category, the ''external hom'' (''x'', ''y'') maps a pair of objects to a set of morphisms. So in the category of sets, this is an obje ...

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

. Downview is located on the outskirts of

Banstead Banstead is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It is south of Sutton, London, Sutton, south-west of Croydon, north of Reigate, south-east of Kingston-upon-Thames, and south of Central London. On the North Dow ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

(overlooking

Banstead Downs Banstead Downs is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Banstead in Surrey. There are Saxon burial mounds on the site and they are a Scheduled Monument. Today, with wooded areas and wide open fields, Banstead Downs are predominantly ...

), and is immediately adjacent to the southern boundary of Belmont in

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

. The prison is operated by

His Majesty's Prison Service His Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) is a part of HM Prison and Probation Service (formerly the National Offender Management Service), which is the part of His Majesty's Government charged with managing most of the prisons within England and ...

, and is situated in proximity to High Down Prison for men.

History

Downview was converted from a former nurses' home of Banstead Hospital; it opened in 1989 as a Category C male prison. In 1992, HMP Downview saw the establishment of the UK's first intensive drug and alcohol rehabilitation programme. The programme was established by the Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust and was opened by

Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor. Considered one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for List of Anthony Hopkins performances, his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins ha ...

, who remains a patron of the trust. In September 2001, owing to increased demand for places at women's prisons in the UK, Downview's role changed to a "closed" prison for adult women. A year later, one of the prison's

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

s resigned after claims that he had demanded sexual favours from inmates in exchange for communion wine. In December 2004 a sixteen-bed juvenile unit opened at Downview for young female offenders (both remand and convicted) aged from 15-18, in partnership with the

Youth Justice Board The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) () is a non-departmental public body created by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to oversee the youth justice system for England and Wales. Its purposes are set out in section 41 of that Act. It ...

. The PRIME project was launched at Downview in April 2006; it is now known as The Media House. It is a media educational and broadcast facility inside the prison. The project, managed by Maria Esposito from 2007 to 2013, has won several awards including the Butler Trust Award in 2010/11. Prisoners can achieve a BTEC qualification for completing the 16-week course.

The prison today

Downview Prison holds adult sentenced female prisoners. Downview is divided into 4 wings, A, B, C and D (D wing is a resettlement wing). All wings have single-cell accommodation with in-cell electricity and telephony. The prison offers vocational training courses and

NVQ National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are practical work-based awards in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that are achieved through training and assessment. The regulatory framework supporting NVQs was withdrawn in 2015 and replaced by th ...

s for inmates. The resettlement wing provides opportunities for inmates to work and receive education outside the prison. On 4 September 2013, the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

announced that it intended to convert Downview into a prison for adult males. It closed as a women's prison in preparation for conversion, but in 2016 it reopened as a women's prison when

HM Prison Holloway HM Prison Holloway was a British prison security categories, closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, ...

was closed, taking many of its prisoners. In March 2019, the Ministry of Justice announced that a wing within the prison would be used solely to house

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

inmates, making it the first unit in the UK to serve this purpose.

Notable inmates

Farah Damji Farah Damji (born 9 October 1966), also known as Farah Dan, is a Ugandan-born British convicted criminal with multiple convictions pertaining to fraud and stalking in the United States, South Africa, and United Kingdom. In 2016, Damji was describ ...

, convicted fraudster

References

External links

Ministry of Justice pages on Downview

HMP Downview - HM Inspectorate of Prisons Reports
{{Authority control Downview Prisons in Surrey 1989 establishments in England