Inside 'crumbling' Dartmoor Prison

CELEBRITY judge Rob Rinder has thrust Dartmoor Prison – which is in the process of temporarily closing after ‘dangerously high levels of Radon’ were discovered on its landings this month – further into the spotlight.

- SHANIA KING-SOYZA

Hundreds of inmates at the prison are currently being evacuated following concerns of potential health effects on both prisoners and those working inside the jail, following the Radon discovery.

Now, ‘Britain’s most notorious prison’ has been thrown further into the public eye with Rob’s new Channel 4 docu-series.

Britain Behind Bars: A Secret History follows ‘Judge Rinder’ visiting three famous British prisons to delve into their history and expose the mistreatment of prisoners.

The first episode focused on “crumbling” Dartmoor prison.

Discussing the series, Rob said: “I’ve always believed that how we punish people goes to the heart of who we are as a society.”

He added: “Dartmoor has loomed over my career as a barrister, it first came to my attention in 1990.” That was the year when riots saw prisoners take control of the jail, with noisy protests and setting the building on fire – an act that brought Rob to question: what happened behind these Victorian walls that pushed prisoners to the absolute limit?

HMP Dartmoor has a dark history of having poor living conditions while also being regarded as brutal and scary. Last week the future of the jail was called into question after the discovery of high levels of radioactive radon gas, which sparked the evacuation of around 175 inmates. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it could not say when the prison would reopen, but ‘public safety remains the priority’.