ARMLEY JAIL [LEEDS PRION] - prisoner records 1950s

[jonwicken]

Hi I am looking to find the prisoner records for the 1950s from Armley Jail as someone was imprisoned there in 1953.

I found this on National Archives:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/11947d6f-dd8e-49eb-8cbb-dd50bfda0fa3

However this only goes up to 1950.

I therefore emailed Wakefield Archives who responded:

The West Yorkshire Archive Service Wakefield does indeed hold the LEEDS PRISON, ARMLEY, RECORDS (ref: C187) covering the years 1844-1996. However, as you state, the registers we have relating to prisoners at Armley only cover the years 1851 – 1950. The later records in this collection are entitled ‘Prison Wing records’ and these only cover the years 1968 – 1996, leaving a gap of a number of years between the 50s and 60s. Many of these prison wing records are also not related to individual prisoners and more the prison itself.

I have conducted a search online but unfortunately I cannot see anywhere that holds these records for the years you need. As these years were never deposited with us, along with the rest of the records, I can only surmise that they may have been lost or accidentally destroyed.

I wonder if anyone else has ever looked for these records after 1950 and might know if they are perhaps deposited anywhere else, just in case the later files are perhaps still held by the prison or went to another archive.

Any information would be very helpful.

Thank you,
Jon

[Murrell]

Hi there,
I got records for a person sent Holloway. When l requested further details l was told that the records in that case were close until 100yrs had passed. The year l was looking was 1949.   

[jonwicken]

Thanks very much for the reply. Yes that makes sense as I think hospital records are closed for 100 years too. However I wonder if you are a relative you can be granted access before then?

Kind regards
Jon