HMP Moorland opened in 1991, with a remand and YOI function, containing the original house blocks (1 to 4). House block 5 opened in 1998 and house block 6 was added in 2011 and took the operating capacity to 1,006. In addition, 320 sex offenders from the Yorkshire and Humberside region were received into Moorland and located on house blocks 3 and 4.
In September 2002, HMP/YOI Moorland merged with HMP/YOI Hatfield, with a shared governor and senior management team. In July 2011, it was announced that HMP/YOI Moorland, along with its sister prison HMP/YOI Hatfield, would be subject to a market testing programme. It was placed into the ‘South Yorkshire Lot’, which included HMP Lindholme. The cluster was named HMP South Yorkshire and led by a single governor and senior management team, managing a population of some 2,200 prisoners.
The decision to privatise the prisons was reversed in 2013, and the prison remained in public ownership run by HMPS, and in January 2014 HMP/YOI Moorland reverted to being a single prison.
Accommodation
HMP/YOI Moorland has 7 residential house blocks holding a mix of adults and young offenders.
- 1 – includes substance misuse treatment
- 2 – includes first night centre and induction
- 3 – prisoners convicted of sexual offences
- 4 – prisoners convicted of sexual offences
- 5 – includes the incentivised substance free living unit
- 6 – prisoners convicted of sexual offences and induction
- 7 – unit for older prisoners and those with poor mobility, including a 9 bed intermediate care unit providing rehabilitation for hospital discharges for a maximum of 6 weeks
- 8 – temporary accommodation for prisoners convicted of sexual offence