Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA): 473
Originally built as an orphanage in 1898 and housing Hungarian refugees in the 1950s, Styal was opened as a closed women’s prison in 1963. It serves courts in the north-west of England and north Wales. Styal holds a complicated mix of women from those remanded by the courts, women serving both short and long sentences and those with indeterminate sentences.
About this information
Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA) is the prison service’s own measure of how many prisoners can be held in decent and safe accommodation. Any occupancy above CNA means that the prison in question is overcrowded.
Restricted status: women placed on restricted status are deemed to pose a high risk to the public if they were to escape. They are held in closed women’s prisons, and sometimes placed in the segregation unit.
Closed prisons: the majority of women’s prisons are closed prisons. Women who are assessed as not being suitable for open conditions are held in these prisons.
Open prisons: there are two open prisons for women, Askham Grange and East Sutton Park. They hold women who have been assessed as posing a low risk.