| General Details | Inspections |
| Regimes | Visits and getting there |
| Work and Education | Local News |
General Information
| Name or Prison | HMP Bure |
| Address: | Jaguar Drive Badersfield Norwich Norfolk NR10 5GB |
| Other contact details: | |
| Web Site: | |
| Email: | |
| Main switchboard: | 01603 326 000 |
| At Risk hotline: | |
| Fax: | 01603 326 001 |
| Visits booking number: | 01603 326252 |
| Visits booking email: | SocialVisits.Bure@hmps.gsi.gov.uk |
| Visits booking web site: | www.gov.uk/prison-visits |
| Type of Prison: | Male Cat C |
The #1 governor is Simon Rhoden, who has been in charge since June 2017. The capacity at HMP Bure is 624 and the prison is run by HMPS as part of the East of England Region
Bure opened in 2009 on the former RAF Coltishall airbase near Norwich, a site that had served as an active fighter station from the Second World War until its closure in 2006; the prison’s name was deliberately chosen, rather than using the airbase’s name, to ease concerns among nearby communities. It is a Category C training prison of around 624 places, specialising in adult men convicted of sexual offences, and runs accredited offending-behaviour programmes alongside education and vocational training such as painting and decorating and industrial cleaning.
The Independent Monitoring Board’s most recent annual report found no self-inflicted deaths and generally positive staff-prisoner relationships, describing the segregation unit as exceptionally well managed and the library as highly valued by residents. It raised serious concerns, though, about a planned 43% cut to education teaching hours, which it warned would further reduce purposeful activity and called into question whether Bure could still justify its training-prison status, as well as many prisoners being unable to reach their offender manager for over a year, a lack of round-the-clock healthcare for an ageing population, and cramped double cells in one residential unit.
Given the planned cuts to education provision, families may want to ask directly about a prisoner’s current access to work, courses and their offender manager, alongside the practical visiting and contact details above.