HM Prison Swansea (Welsh: ) is a Category B/C men's
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 ...
Swansea
Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
, Wales. 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 ...
.
History
Swansea is a
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literatur ...
prison built between 1845 and 1861 to replace former prison accommodation at
Swansea Castle
Swansea Castle ( Welsh: ''Castell Abertawe'') is located in the city centre of Swansea, Wales, UK. It was founded by Henry de Beaumont in 1107''Medieval Secular Monuments – The Early Castles from the Norman Conquest to 1217'', page 29. as the ...
. Both male and female inmates were incarcerated there until 1922, at which point all females were transferred to
Cardiff Prison
HM Prison Cardiff (Welsh: ) is a Category B men's prison, located in the Adamsdown area of Cardiff, Wales. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.
History
By 1814, the existing Cardiff Gaol was deemed insufficient for coping ...
.
Execution site
A total of 15 judicial
execution
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...
s took place at Swansea prison between 1858 and 1958. All of the condemned prisoners were
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 ...
for the crime of
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
. Their names, ages and dates of execution are:
* Panotis Alepis, 23 yrs & Manoeli Selapatana, 28 yrs, 20 March 1858 (executioner:
William Calcraft
William Calcraft (11 October 1800 – 13 December 1879) was a 19th-century English hangman, one of the most prolific of British executioners. It is estimated in his 45-year career he carried out 450 executions. A cobbler by trade, ...
) First public hanging, at the front of the prison
* Robert Coe, 12 April 1866 (executioner:
William Calcraft
William Calcraft (11 October 1800 – 13 December 1879) was a 19th-century English hangman, one of the most prolific of British executioners. It is estimated in his 45-year career he carried out 450 executions. A cobbler by trade, ...
) Final public hanging at the prison
* Thomas Nash, 1 March 1886 (executioner: James Berry) First private hanging, out of public view inside the prison walls
* Thomas Allen, 10 April 1889 (executioner: James Berry, and an assistant)
* Joseph Lewis, 30 August 1898 (executioner: James Billington, assisted by his son Thomas)
* William Joseph Foy, 25 yrs, 8 May 1909 (executioner:
Henry Pierrepoint
Henry Albert Pierrepoint (30 November 1877 – 14 December 1922) was an English executioner from 1901 until 1910. He was the father of Albert Pierrepoint and brother of Thomas William Pierrepoint.John Ellis)
* Henry Phillips, 44 yrs, 14 December 1911 (executioner: John Ellis, and an assistant)
* Daniel Sullivan, 38 yrs, 6 September 1916 (executioner: John Ellis, assisted by George Brown)
* Trevor Edwards, 21 yrs, 11 December 1928 (executioner: Robert Baxter, assisted by Alfred Allen)
* Rex Harvey Jones, 21 yrs, 4 August 1949 (executioner:
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint ( ; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English Executioner, hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry Pierrepoint, Henry and uncle Thomas Pierrepoint, Th ...
, and an assistant)
* Robert Mackintosh, 21 yrs, 4 August 1949 (executioner:
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint ( ; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English Executioner, hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry Pierrepoint, Henry and uncle Thomas Pierrepoint, Th ...
, and an assistant)
* Albert Jenkins, 38 yrs, 19 April 1950 (executioner:
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint ( ; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English Executioner, hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry Pierrepoint, Henry and uncle Thomas Pierrepoint, Th ...
, and an assistant)
* Thomas Harries, 25 yrs, 28 April 1954 (executioner:
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint ( ; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English Executioner, hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry Pierrepoint, Henry and uncle Thomas Pierrepoint, Th ...
, assisted by Robert Stewart)
* Vivian Teed, 24 yrs, 6 May 1958 (executioner: Robert Stewart, assisted by Harry Robinson)
Note: The execution of Jones & Mackintosh in 1949 was notable for being a double hanging i.e. both condemned men were executed simultaneously, whilst standing together on the same gallows. Jones & Mackintosh had committed unrelated murders. Double executions were already rare in the UK and the practice ended in 1952.
The remains of all executed prisoners were buried in
unmarked grave
An unmarked grave is one that lacks a marker, headstone, or nameplate indicating that a body is buried there. It may also include burials that previously had identification but which are no longer identifiable due to weather damage, neglect, dist ...
s within the prison walls, as was customary.
Recent history
In April 2002, an inspection report from
His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons
His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons is the head of HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the senior inspector of prisons, young offender institutions and immigration service detention and removal centres in England and Wales. The current chief inspe ...
condemned conditions for inmates at Swansea Prison. The report called on the prison to improve cleanliness and sanitation, particularly for vulnerable inmates who are housed away from other prisoners. The report also highlighted the lack of showers in all areas, which meant that not all inmates were able to shower every day. However the prison was praised for its rehabilitation of inmates.
Four months later, a survey of prison numbers revealed that HMP Swansea was Wales's most overcrowded prison, and one of the top five most densely populated in Britain. Statistics showed that Swansea was holding 145 more inmates than the 219 it should have been accommodating. Overcrowding has been an issue at the prison ever since.
The prison today
Swansea is a Category B/C prison for adult males remanded into custody from the local courts, as well as convicted and sentenced prisoners.
Prisoners are employed in the prison's workshops, kitchen and recycling units. Full and part-time education is also provided. Other features include a Prisoner And Liaison Support Scheme, a
Swansea City A.F.C.
Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...
Social inclusion officer scheme, Prisoner elected councils,
Job Centre
Jobcentre Plus (; ) is a brand used by the Department for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.
From 2002 to 2011, Jobcentre Plus was an executive agency which reported directly to the Minister of State for Employment. It was formed by th ...
Plus, Housing Officers and Community
Chaplaincy
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, intelligen ...
.
In the early 1980s, Swansea started the
Samaritans
Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...
trained 'Prisoner Listener Scheme', that has now been developed in most prisons in the UK.
There are issues with suicide, self harm and violence among prisoners at Swansea Prison. The prison did not do enough to prevent eight prisoners killing themselves. Four of the suicides happened before an inspection in 2014 but a more recent visit showed the prison had not learnt lessons. Peter Clarke said, "Between our last inspection in 2014 and when we went back in the middle of last year there have been four further self-inflicted deaths – all in similar circumstances, all in the early days of the individual's imprisonment at Swansea jail. Quite simply, not enough has been done to understand the sort of problems they may have been facing and to prevent them inflicting harm and death upon themselves." The prison has been described as not fit for the purpose. On 14 January 2018 another inmate Robert Lee Evans, was found hanging in his cell, just days after the publication of a damning inspectorate report. An inquest into the death was opened on 23 January and the ombudsman is conducting an independent investigation.
Swansea
Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
Swansea
Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...