There are several types of prison in the UK, both privately and publicly run, and the easiest way to make sense of them is to think about the prisoners they hold rather than who runs the building.
The information on this page is based on the law in England & Wales. If you’re in Scotland, click here for the guide for your jurisdiction. If you’re in Northern Ireland, click here for that guide.
Beyond the obvious split between male, female and young offender establishments, prisoners are categorised according to the risk they pose – both to the public and to each other. There’s also a split between Local prisons and Training (sometimes called Dispersal) prisons. A Local prison is where you’ll be sent initially, and where your assessment takes place; as the name suggests, it’ll usually be local to the court where your case was heard. Depending on the length of your sentence you may serve the whole thing at a Local prison, but if you’ve got a longer sentence you may be moved on to a Training prison to serve it out. There’s little to choose between the two types in terms of the day-to-day regime; the difference is mainly about the work, education and offending-behaviour courses on offer.
Every prisoner is given a security category, which sets out how the system will handle you. At the most serious end for male prisoners are Category A prisoners – those whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public or to national security. Category A is further split into Standard, High and Exceptional Risk, based on how likely you are judged to be to try to escape.
Unless you’re Category A, when you’re first received into custody you’ll usually be categorised as Category B – those who don’t need maximum security, but for whom escape still needs to be made very difficult. If you’re on remand you’ll normally be held as Cat B. As your sentence goes on you may be re-categorised to a lower, less restrictive category: Category C are those who can’t be trusted in open conditions but are unlikely to try to escape, while Category D prisoners are held in open prisons with a much more relaxed regime, on the basis they can reasonably be trusted not to abscond.
Categorisation is reviewed regularly, but if you’re serving a short sentence – under 2 years or so – the prison may not get round to moving you down the categories at all, and you could stay Cat B for your whole sentence. If that seems to be happening to you, it’s worth raising with your solicitor.