Campsfield House

Campsfield House is an Immigration detention prison located in Kidlington near Oxford, England, operated by private prison firm Mitie under contract with the British government. It has been the site of a number of protests from human rights campaigners and has seen a number of hunger strikes and one suicide. Protests at conditions in the prison have sparked a number of hunger strikes and disturbances. However, it was highly praised by the Chief Inspector of Prisons at the last full inspection.

Campsfield House used to be a youth detention centre, but it re-opened as an Immigration Detention Prison in November 1993. It originally had 200 places for both male and female prisoners, however in 1997, capacity was reduced to 184 and the prison became male only. Capacity has now risen to around 215 bed spaces. Although the detainee population initially consisted of asylum seekers, since June 2006 new government policy has seen the population change to mainly (an average of 80%) former HMP prisoners.

Until 2011, Campsfield was run by the American private prison company GEO Group. Campsfield House was their first European contract. In 2011 operations at the facility were turned over to Mitie Group PLC.

Detainees at Campsfield House are held behind a 20-foot-high (6.1 m) razor wire–topped fence. Throughout the centre there are surveillance cameras, and friends and relatives wishing to visit detainees are searched before passing through five separate remote-controlled doors. Detainees are allowed the use of mobile phones and the establishment can achieve contact through these. Campsfield House is not categorised in the same way as HMP prisons, and would fall short of category 'C' standard. Security of the centre is maintained by large perimeter fences, but within the establishment detainees are relatively free to roam. As opposed to cells detainees have two or three man rooms and communal shower and toilet facilities. There are around fifteen single rooms. The doors to rooms are never locked, however the gates to the three accommodation blocks are locked between midnight and six in the morning. Detainees are free to move around the blocks during this time. This relatively relaxed regime, coupled with the new influx of ex HMP prisoners has led to difficulty in maintaining discipline at Campsfield.

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