HMP Buckley Hall

Key Contact Details

 The prison is run by HMPS as part of the North West Region. It has a capacity of 459 and the #1 governor is Carol Angel, who has been in post since January 2017.

Buckley Hall, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, began life as an industrial school in 1885, later became a borstal, and has operated as a Category C training prison for adult men since 1994 (it was briefly run privately in its early years before reverting to public management). It has capacity for around 460 men and offers vocational training in trades such as carpentry, plumbing and horticulture alongside its education provision.

At its most recent inspection, in February 2024, HM Inspectorate of Prisons rated Buckley Hall “reasonably good” for safety and respect and “good” for preparation for release, though “not sufficiently good” for purposeful activity. Inspectors praised strong staff-prisoner relationships, good substance misuse services, and an innovative peer-support mental health facility known as “The Hive”, alongside solid family engagement and resettlement work. They were more critical of rising self-harm rates, ageing buildings with cramped cells and delayed repairs, insufficient education and work spaces, and around a third of prisoners being locked up during normal working hours.

Overall this is a more encouraging picture than at many local prisons, though families may want to ask about access to work and time out of cell alongside the practical visiting and contact details above.