Dartmoor (HM Prison)
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| Location | Princetown, Devon |
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| Security class | Adult Male/Category C |
| Population | 640 (as of January 2016) |
| Opened | 1809 |
| Managed by | HM Prison Services |
| Governor | Bridie Oakes-Richards |
| Website | Dartmoor at justice.gov.uk |
HM Prison Dartmoor is a Category C men's prison, located in Princetown, high on Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. Its high granite walls dominate this area of the moor. The prison is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, and is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.
In 1805, Great Britain was at war with Napoleonic France; a conflict during which thousands of prisoners were taken and confined in prison "hulks" or derelict ships. This was considered unsafe, partially due to the proximity of the Royal Naval dockyard at Devonport (then called Plymouth Dock), and as living conditions were appalling in the extreme, a prisoner of war depot was planned in the remote isolation of Dartmoor. Construction started in 1806, taking three years to complete. In 1809 the first French prisoners arrived, and were joined by American POWs taken in the War of 1812. At one time the prison population numbered almost 6,000. Many prisoners died and were buried on the moor. Both French and American wars were concluded in 1815, and repatriations began. The prison then lay empty until 1850, when it was largely rebuilt and commissioned as a convict gaol. With the establishment of the prison farm in about 1852, all the prisoners' remains were exhumed and re-interred in two cemeteries behind the prison.
Designed by Daniel Asher Alexander and constructed originally between 1806 and 1809 by local labour, to hold prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars, it was also used to hold American prisoners from the War of 1812. Although the war ended with the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814, many American prisoners of war still remained in Dartmoor.
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