Wrexham prison - wrexhamprison.com
In the next few weeks a new mega prison, HMP Berwyn, in north Wales, will open its gates and the Ministry of Justice will start the process of filling this new mega prison with prisoners from across the country. Once fully operational it will hold more than 2,000 people, making it the largest prison in the UK. If the government gets its way, this will just be the start, with more prisons are on their way. As part of the government’s £1.3bn ‘prison building revolution’, the Ministry of Justice are closing existing prisons with the intention of selling the land to fund new prison builds – either on existing sites, such as at HMPs Wellingborough and Glen Parva – or on new sites.
Prisons have always been places of trauma and violence but during 2016, there were dramatic increases in assaults, self-harm and suicide. Self-inflicted deaths rose by 32% with a prisoner taking their own life every three days. The pressures building up in the prison system resulted in an outpouring of anguish and distress from prisoners – directed at themselves in the form of self-harm and suicide – and then outward at the system in the form of resistance and widespread rioting.
