Dovegate Prison
Her Majesty's Prison Dovegate, opened in 2001, cares for up to 860 male adult prisoners under contract to the National Offender Management Service. They are all serving sentences of between four years and life.
Dovegate, in Staffordshire, provides education – literacy, numeracy, IT and vocational skills - healthcare, industrial work opportunities, drug and alcohol counselling, and offending behaviour workshops.
The prison includes a separate 200-bed Therapeutic Community for repeat serious offenders. The unit, the only privately-run one in the UK and the only purpose-built therapeutic facility, offers its residents daily group therapy and a high degree of influence over the way the unit is run.
The system, pioneered at Grendon prison in Buckinghamshire, has been proven to significantly reduce the rate of re-offending among serious repeat offenders.
A report into Dovegate by HM Inspector of Prisons was published in March 2007. Read our comments here.