BRITAIN’S most dangerous women prisoners, including the serial killer Rose West, are being moved from a top-security jail criticised today as “claustrophobic”.

West’s status as a dangerous Category A prisoner could be downgraded as part of the operation to move 100 women prisoners from Durham prison.

Many of the inmates will be switched to new women’s prisons opening in Middlesex and Cambridgeshire in the next 12 months.

West, who was convicted of ten murders, could be designated a “restricted status” prisoner — one who is under close supervision with restrictions on movements and visits but does not pose an escape risk.

The decision to close the only Category A women’s jail in England and Wales comes after the Chief Inspector of Prisons today calls for women at Durham to be accommodated elsewhere.

Anne Owers, the Inspector, says that the regime at the women’s jail in Durham is not appropriate for women serving long sentences.

She said: “In spite of attempts to brighten the interior, Durham is a constricted and forbidding physical environment; with little space for association or activity, and a particularly dispiriting and bleak exercise yard.

“This is scarcely likely to enhance the mental state of women who are feeling depressed and anxious, and who may spend many years in this environment.”

Her inspection report of the women’s part of Durham said: “The general atmosphere of the women’s prison was restricted, oppressive and claustrophobic.

“The exercise yard and the external surroundings were grim, with an absence of any greenery to soften the surroundings.”

Nevertheless, the unannounced inspection in January found that the prison was very secure and ordered, there was little indication of serious drug problems and relationships between staff and prisoners were generally good.

Durham jail holds both men and women, including the country’s seven Category A women inmates and several Category A male offenders.

It is to lose its status as a high-security jail and will be converted into a community prison holding low-risk offenders. It is likely that West and the six other Category A women prisoners will be transferred to Bronzefield jail, a new women’s prison in Middlesex that opens next month, or to a new female jail at Peterborough due to open next year.

Among the male prisoners who will be transferred to one of the remaining seven high-security jails is Michael Sams, who is in Durham serving life for the murder of Julie Dart and the abduction of Stephanie Slater, an estate agent.

DEATH ROW

Table on self-inflicted deaths per 100 prisoners 2002-2003
Dorchester 2.069
Lewes 1.855
Nottingham 1.733
Styal women’s jail 1.635
Durham 1.559
New Hall women’s jail 1.399
Leicester 1.398
Gloucester 1.341
Winchester 1.320
Brockhill women’s jail 1.314
Source: Prison Service

DURHAM

• Opened 1819
• 2.8 hectare site one mile from city centre
• Much of property is Grade II listed, including chapel built in 1840
• Holds 600 men and 100 women
• Cost per place per annum: £35,197
• Previous inmates: Myra Hindley, Moors murderer; Martina Anderson and Ella O’Dwyer, IRA terrorists

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