My first prison visit was to Pudu prison in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2003. The prison has since been demolished to make way for development.
Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset, England, was used from 1610-2013. It was the oldest working prison in Britain. It is now open for jailhouse tours. The prison was built in 1610 and first used in 1625. It closed in 1930 as it only housed 51 people, but then opened again in 1938 as a depot for the The Royal Pioneer Corps. Historical documents were housed there, including The Magna Carta, The Domesday Book and volumes of the HMS Victory logs.
From 1942-1945 the prison was occupied by the American Military Custodial Service and housed 768 prisoners.
The last person to be hung for rape was in 1945. The Kray twins were held here for a month in 1952 awaiting court martial.
We went on a self guided tour, rather than a guided one.
Some of the cells -
The exercise yard -
The execution room
and the holding room where the prisoner was kept prior to execution
This was used for visits -
The prison will in the near future be turned into apartments by City and Country. The listed cells blocks, former Treadwheel House and workshop buildings will all be turned into residential use, while the addition of sensitively designed new buildings will provide additional housing.
