Visit to HMP Leeds (Armley)

On Wednesday 5th November, twelve undergraduate LLB students and one Programme Manager left the comfort of the Lister Building, Bradford College for a visit to Armley Prison.

Leeds Prison (Armley) was built in 1847 and was a place of execution until the 1960's (93 executions in total, the youngest being 19 and including one woman). Originally designed to depict a fortress it has been refurbished and upgraded. Gone have the days of slopping out. Today HMP Leeds is one of the largest prisons in the country. It is a local prison taking all prisoners who have been remanded in custody or who are newly convicted by the courts in its catchment area. The prison houses over 1000 male offenders from category A to D.

Our tour commenced at the visitors centre where our details were checked and fingerprints taken before we passed through one security section to another. Once inside the prison we started our tour at the main gate, before going into the central prison buildings. We visited the first night wing which receives new inmates and had the opportunity to discuss the type of experience that prisoners feel and how they are supported by a group of Listeners. The Listeners are a group of prisoners trained by the Samaritans who support new arrivals who may find the whole experience of arriving at prison extremely daunting. This was also the first opportunity for the students to step inside a prison cell and meet the prisoners. We then passed onto a couple of Wings in the prison, including the segregation wing, and again had the opportunity to step inside various types of prison cells. The tour was informative in that we had the opportunity to discuss with the guards what would be a typical day for a prisoner and we had the opportunity to see prisoners at work (kitchen) exercising (in the yard) and at recreation (on the Wings). The tour was completed with a question and answer session with the prison Governor.

Despite an inspirational discussion with the Governor who had a clear vision of the prisons role in rehabilitation through education and who gave some excellent examples of the challenges that the prison faced to that end and their imaginative solutions, which ranged from cooking to parenting sessions, we all left pleased that ours was just an educational tour and not an extended stay.