The prison is part of the Tyne and Wear/North East Region and is run by HMPS. It has a capacity of 1179 and the #1 governor is Simon Ormerod, who has been in charge since December 2020.
HMP Holme House was a purpose-built category B prison, which opened in May 1992. It expanded in the late 1990s with the building of two further house blocks, providing 235 additional places. Two new workshops opened in 1997 and an additional house block with 224 places opened in 2010, along with two further regimes buildings providing activity places for around 200 prisoners. In June 2016 it was announced that HMP Holme House would be one of the four reform prisons, and in 2017 it re-roled as a Cat C training Prison.
The creation of ‘reform’ prisons was announced by the government in May 2016. These prisons are intended to give more flexibility to prison governors about how they manage budgets and services, which makes them more directly accountable for the performance of their establishments. Reform prison governors are allowed to opt out of national contracts and have more operational control over areas such as education, prison regime and rehabilitation services.
Accommodation
- House block 1– sentenced prisoners
- House block 2 – sentenced prisoners
- House block 3:
- A wing – sentenced prisoners,
- B wing – first night,
- C wing – veterans
- House block 4 – sentenced prisoners
- House block 5 – psychological informed planned environment (PIPE)
- House block 6
- A wing – substance misuse therapeutic community
- B wing – substance free living
- House block 7 – vulnerable prisoners; sex offenders
- Health care unit – including palliative care suite
- Support and integration unit – segregation unit