Spring Hill (HM Prison)
Encyclopedia
HM Prison Spring Hill is a Category D
men's prison
, located in the village of Grendon Underwood
, in Buckinghamshire
, England
. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service
, and is jointly managed with HMP Grendon
which is situated next to Spring Hill.
. After the war the site was converted by the Prison Service, and became the first Open Prison
in the United Kingdom in 1953.
In April 2003, thieves broke into Spring Hill Prison, stealing £650 from a safe and taking valuable personal effects, including mobile phones, from inmates' lockers.
In December 2007, after a colony of sparrow
s had settled at the London Zoo
's Gorilla exhibit, inmates constructed ten bird boxes for the zoo to encourage the birds to breed and stay in the area.
HMP Spring Hill offers a range of employment and education courses. There are also two vocational learning centres (in Information Technology
, and Bricklaying). The education department has links with local colleges, offering opportunities for prisoners to attend college outside the prison on a full or part time basis.
Prison security categories in the United Kingdom
There are four prisoner security categories in the United Kingdom used to classify every adult prisoner for the purposes of assigning them to a prison. The categories are based upon the severity of the crime and the risk posed should the person escape....
men's prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, located in the village of Grendon Underwood
Grendon Underwood
Grendon Underwood is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the west of the county, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire and near the Roman road Akeman Street....
, in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service is a part of the National Offender Management Service of the Government of the United Kingdom tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales...
, and is jointly managed with HMP Grendon
Grendon (HM Prison)
HM Prison Grendon is a Category B men's prison, located in village of Grendon Underwood, in Buckinghamshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is jointly managed with HMP Spring Hill which is situated next to Grendon....
which is situated next to Spring Hill.
History
Originally known as Grendon Hall, the building was constructed in 1872 as a family home. During the Second World War the site was initially used as a base for MI6, and was then a training centre for the Special Operations ExecutiveSpecial Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
. After the war the site was converted by the Prison Service, and became the first Open Prison
Open prison
An open prison is an informal description applied to any penal establishment in which the prisoners are trusted to serve their sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and so do not need to be locked up in prison cells...
in the United Kingdom in 1953.
In April 2003, thieves broke into Spring Hill Prison, stealing £650 from a safe and taking valuable personal effects, including mobile phones, from inmates' lockers.
In December 2007, after a colony of sparrow
Sparrow
The sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a genus of the family, Passer...
s had settled at the London Zoo
London Zoo
London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
's Gorilla exhibit, inmates constructed ten bird boxes for the zoo to encourage the birds to breed and stay in the area.
The prison today
Spring Hill is a Category D open resettlement prison for male adults. Most of the prisoners held at Spring Hill are long-term inmates, transferred from other prisons for the last few years of their sentence.HMP Spring Hill offers a range of employment and education courses. There are also two vocational learning centres (in Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, and Bricklaying). The education department has links with local colleges, offering opportunities for prisoners to attend college outside the prison on a full or part time basis.