History
The prison is named after Swinfen Hall, which stands opposite the prison. HMP Swinfen Hall opened in February 1963 as a Borstal. In 1972 it became a long-term young offenders' institution.
In April 2001, an inspection report from Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons highly praised Swinfen Hall, naming the institution as a centre of excellence. The report stated that Swinfen Hall was a place "in which the needs as well as the characteristics of young, adolescent prisoners, are understood and catered for". The prisons anti-bullying schemes and programmes which examine offending behaviour were also praised.
A major building project began at Swinfen Hall in spring 2004, following significant increases in the prison population. The new construction was to develop existing accommodation and facilities for prisoners.
In January 2006, Swinfen Hall was one of only five institutions to get the top ranking in the list compiled by the Prison Service, achieving the level four category which is reserved for prisons which are exceptionally high performing and which consistently meet or exceed targets.
Read more about this topic: Swinfen Hall (HM Prison)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)