Cardiff (HM Prison)
Encyclopedia
HM Prison Cardiff is a Category B
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 Adamsdown
Adamsdown
Adamsdown is an inner city area and community in the south of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.-History:In mediaeval times, Adamsdown lay just outside the east walls of Cardiff and was owned by the lords of Glamorgan. The area may be named after an Adam Kygnot, a porter at Cardiff Castle around...

 area of Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. 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...

.

History

By 1814, the existing Cardiff Gaol
Cardiff Gaol
Cardiff Gaol was a prison located on St. Marys Street, Cardiff, Wales.-Background:Cardiff's original court and gaol were loacted within the walls of Cardiff Castle. Whilst the court moved within the castle walls, the gaol was always located within the Black Tower...

  was deemed insufficient for coping with the both the scale of demand and quality of building to cope with the quickly expanding industrial town, and so proposals were made to buid a new county jail for Glamorgan. Construction commenced in 1827, and the new stone building located south of Crockherbtown opened at the end of 1832, capable of housing 80 prisioners, including 20 debtors.

The three Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 wings of Cardiff Prison underwent a major refurbishment programme in 1996, and the prison’s capacity was extended by the commissioning of three new wings (C, D and E), with the number of places for life-sentenced prisoners increased also.

In 1997 Cardiff Prison was criticised for chaining sick inmates to their hospital beds after a probe into the death of one of Cardiff's prisoners. Three years later one of Canterbury's Assistant Governors was found dead after an investigation into child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...

. The manager had been arrested at the prison days earlier by detectives investigating the alleged misuse of a personal computer.

Cardiff Prison was criticised in 2001 for its cell-share policy in the wake of an inmate's death. Prison officials were advised to carry out full checks on prisoners on their arrival, to prevent violent or even fatal incidents from occurring. A year later the prison was criticised again for its poor record in dealing with drug abuse and providing decent recreation facilities for inmates.

Execution site

A total of 20 judicial executions took place at Cardiff prison. The condemned prisoners were hanged for the crime of murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

. Their names, ages and dates of execution are:
  • William Lacey, 29 yrs, 21 August 1900
  • Eric Lange, 30 yrs, 21 December 1904
  • Rhoda Wills, 44 yrs, 14 August 1907 (female)
  • George Stills, 30 yrs, 13 December 1907
  • Patrick Collins, 24 yrs, 30 December 1908
  • Hugh McLaren, 29 yrs, 14 August 1913
  • Edgar Bindon, 19 yrs, 25 March 1914
  • Alec Bakerlis, 24 yrs, 10 April 1917
  • Thomas Caler, 23 yrs, 14 April 1920
  • Lester Hamilton, 25 yrs, 16 August 1921
  • George Thomas, 26 yrs, 9 March 1926
  • Edward Rowlands, 40 yrs, 27 January 1928
  • Daniel Driscoll, 34 yrs, 27 January 1928
  • William John Corbett, 32 yrs, 12 August 1931
  • George Roberts, 29 yrs, 8 August 1940
  • Howard Joseph Grossley, 37 yrs, 5 September 1945 (an AWOL Canadian soldier)
  • Evan Hadyn Evans, 22 yrs, 3 February 1948
  • Clifford Wills, 31 yrs, 9 December 1948
  • Ajit Singh, 27 yrs, 7 May 1952
  • Mahmood Mattan
    Mahmood Hussein Mattan
    Mahmood Hussein Mattan was a Somali former merchant seaman who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Lily Volpert on 6 March 1952. The murder took place in the Docklands area of Cardiff, Wales and Mattan was mainly convicted on the evidence of a single prosecution witness...

    , 28 yrs, 3 September 1952 - (conviction quashed in February 1998)


The remains of executed prisoners were buried in unmarked grave
Unmarked grave
The phrase unmarked grave has metaphorical meaning in the context of cultures that mark burial sites.As a figure of speech, a common meaning of the term "unmarked grave" is consignment to oblivion, i.e., an ignominious end. A grave monument is a sign of respect and fondness, erected with the...

s within the prison walls, as was customary. In late 2003, after capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 had been abolished in the UK, the remains of Corbett, Roberts, Grossley, Evans, Wills and Singh were exhumed from the prison grounds and reburied elsewhere in order to make space for the construction of a new cell block. The precise location of the new cell block is 51°28′47.58"N 3°10′04.68"W.

The remains of Mahmood Mattan (executed in 1952 but cleared of murder in 1998) had previously been exhumed from the same location for reburial in 1996. Mattan is now buried in the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

section of Western Cemetery, Cardiff. His tombstone bears the epitaph "Killed by Injustice". After Mattan's conviction was quashed, his widow Laura and three sons (David, Omar and Mervyn) received the sum of £725,000 in compensation from the British Government.

The prison today

Cardiff Prison accepts male adult prisoners remanded into custody who are drawn predominantly from the surrounding court catchment area of South Wales. In addition Cardiff also houses sentenced Category B and C prisoners.

Cardiff’s regime includes full time education, employment in the prison workshops, and training courses. There is a resettlement unit that offers prisoners various offending behaviour programmes and work based courses, and a Detoxification Unit accommodating 50 prisoners.

External links

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