| General Details, |
Inspections |
| Regimes | Visits and getting there |
| Work and Education | Local News |
General Information
| Name of Prison | HMP Brixton |
| Address: | Jebb Avenue Brixton LondonSW2 5XF |
| Other contact details: | |
| Web Site: | |
| Email: | |
| Main switchboard: | 020 8588 6000 |
| At Risk hotline: | |
| Fax: | 020 8588 6283 |
| Visits booking number: | 020 8678 1433 |
| Visits booking email: | |
| Visits centre web site: | www.spurgeons.org/hmp-brixton, |
| Type of Prison: | Male Cat C/D |
The prison is run by HMPS as part of the London Region. It has a capacity of 789 and the #1 (interim) governor is Mia Wheeler who has been in charge since March 2023.
Brixton is one of London’s oldest prisons, originally built in 1820 as the Surrey House of Correction and substantially expanded through the nineteenth century. Today it is a Category C/D resettlement prison for adult men, with a certified capacity of around 790, and over the years has held a wide range of notable inmates, from the philosopher Bertrand Russell to the Kray twins.
An inspection in June 2024 found the prison severely overcrowded, with some cells lacking space for adequate furniture, and identified persistently high levels of violence alongside significant, inadequately addressed drug problems. Inspectors also found weak safeguarding and complaints handling, poor-quality education and training with slow allocation of prisoners to work, unreliable time out of cell, and release planning that was not consistently well handled between the prison and community probation teams. Taken together, inspectors judged that Brixton was not properly fulfilling its intended resettlement function.
Given these findings, families and friends of anyone held at Brixton may want to ask directly about access to work, education and release planning, alongside using the practical visiting and contact details set out above.