How do England and Wales's prisons compare with similar prisons?
An independent comparison of 120 adult prisons, using official data only. Each prison is compared with similar ones, not the whole estate, and shown as a band with a likely range, not a precise rank.
Reception prisons
31 prisons
Local prisons that serve the courts. They receive people on remand and newly sentenced, and hold many short-sentence prisoners, so turnover is high and the population is the most changeable.
Category C prisons
50 prisons
Training and resettlement prisons for category C men: those who cannot be trusted in open conditions but are not likely to make a determined escape attempt. Includes the foreign national category C prisons.
Category B and High Security prisons
14 prisons
Closed prisons holding men with longer sentences and higher security needs, including the high security dispersal estate.
Open prisons
13 prisons
Category D prisons for people judged low risk of absconding, many of them coming to the end of long sentences.
How to read it
- Bands, not ranks. Likely ranges are wide (about two-fifths of a group at the median), so the band is the finding.
- Adjusted for who a prison holds. Safety outcomes are compared with what you would expect given sentence length, remand, age and turnover.
- Not everything is scored. Reoffending, workforce stability and disorder incidents are shown but not scored, and the page says why.
- Dates matter. Inspection and survey grades come from Apr 2022 to Mar 2026. Each table shows the inspection date.
9 prisons are unusually higher than expected on at least one outcome under all three of our benchmarks. These are prompts to look, not findings of fault. Read the full methodology.
Questions
What is Prison Rankings?
An independent comparison of the 120 adult prisons in England and Wales using official data only. Each prison is compared with similar prisons and shown as a band with a likely range, not a precise rank.
How are prisons compared?
Only with similar prisons. Prisons are placed in five groups (Reception, Category C, Category B and High Security, Open, Female) and compared within them, never across them. Safety outcomes are adjusted for who the prison holds, including sentence length, remand, age and turnover.
Why bands and ranges rather than a league table?
Positions in the middle of a group are sensitive to weighting and to chance. The likely range for a prison typically spans about two-fifths of its group, so the band is the more reliable guide than a single rank.
Is this the same as the official HMPPS rating?
No. HMPPS rates each prison from 1 (serious concern) to 4 (outstanding) against targets on 33 measures. We use the same public data but compare prisons with similar ones, adjust incident outcomes for context, leave out internal audits and show uncertainty. The two agree closely but not exactly. The official rating is shown for context and is not an input to our bands.
Where does the data come from?
HM Prison and Probation Service performance ratings, Ministry of Justice Safety in Custody and population statistics, HMPPS Annual Digest, proven reoffending statistics, HMPPS workforce statistics, and Care Quality Commission open data. All are published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, and every figure is traceable.
How current is the data?
Incident rates and workforce figures cover April 2025 to March 2026. HMIP inspection grades come from inspections between April 2022 and March 2026, and each prison's page shows its inspection date. Reoffending covers people released between April 2023 and March 2024.
Does a lower band mean a prison is bad?
No. A band describes position among similar prisons, not absolute quality. Flags such as higher than expected on an outcome are prompts to look, not findings of fault.
How do I report a mistake?
Email contact@prisonrankings.com with the page, the figure and the official source. We publish every correction and keep a public changelog.