Stafford Gaol
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| Location | Stafford, Staffordshire |
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| Security class | Adult Male/Category C |
| Population | 741 (as of May 2009) |
| Opened | 1793 |
| Managed by | HM Prison Services |
| Governor | P J Butler |
| Website | Stafford at justice.gov.uk |
HM Prison Stafford is a Category C men's prison, located in Stafford, Staffordshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service. In 2014 it became a sex offender-only jail.
Her Majesty's Prison at Stafford was originally constructed and opened in 1793. It was substantially enlarged by a building development programme of works in the 19th Century.
Among its early prisoners was George Smith, who served several sentences for theft in the facility and began his later work as a hangman while still a prisoner, assisting William Calcraft. He officiated at several executions in the prison later in his life, including that of the convicted poisoner William Palmer in 1866.
H.M.P. Stafford was used to incarcerate prisoners of war from the defeated Fenian revolution in April 1916.
A number of the Republican prisoners later left accounts of their time in Stafford, James Kavanagh, "I forgot to mention that in Stafford prison, besides the two buildings I've mentioned there was another building, I forget its name, in which British conscientious objectors were placed. The term conscientious objector may not now be understood. It was applied to those who for religious or other reasons had an objection to fighting or the taking of human life. Compulsory military service or conscription had been introduced into Great Britain, and when these people were called up they refused to come. They were then arrested, charged and sentenced. They were subjected to all sorts of cruelties and indignities."
The facility was closed in late 1916 and mothballed for two decades, re-opening on the commencement of World War 2 in 1939.
In November 1998, an inspection report from Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons heavily criticised security at H.M.P. Stafford after it emerged that prisoners were smuggling in illegal drugs for consumption within the facility. Inmates were fashioning strips of paper into planes, then attaching lines to them and flying them over the 19-foot (5.8-metre) perimeter wall. The lines were then used to pull packages containing prohibited substances back over the wall. The facility was also criticised for being overcrowded, under-resourced, and failing to adequately prepare prisoners for release.
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