HM Prison Rochester 3.32

HM Prison Rochester is a male Young Offenders Institution, located in the Borstal area of Rochester in Kent, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is located next to HMP Cookham Wood.HistoryHMP Rochester was founded in 1870 as Borstal Prison, which was a large convict prison. Borstal Prison was then an experimental juvenile prison of the reformatory type set up in 1902. Because it was the first detention centre of its kind in the UK, the word "Borstal" became synonymous with other detention centres for youths across the country, and elsewhere. The institution remained as a Borstal school until 1983, when it was converted into a Youth Custody Centre and renamed 'Rochester'.In 1988, the prison changed its role to operate as a remand centre for the Kent courts and sentenced category C and D adult males. Rochester then became a mixed site prison for immigration detainees and a resettlement unit for adult male prisoners. The prison also operated as a remand and allocation centre for males under the age of 21. In January 2002, Rochester re-rolled to a prison solely for sentenced young men up to the age of 21.In March 2003, Rochester Prison was criticised by its own Board of Visitors. The Board stated that there were few useful employment or educational opportunities for inmates, and so therefore they had few chances to gain qualifications or work experience.