Thorn Cross Prison

Tel: 01925 805100 – Arley Road, Appleton Thorn, Warrington, Cheshire WA4 4RL

HMP Thorn Cross is a young offender’s institution, holding those between the ages of 18 and 25. It is a category D prison, which first opened in 1985 on the site of a Royal Naval Air Station, and has a current capacity of 321. All inmates must have under 2 years to serve on their sentence to be accepted. If you’d like to find out how to get to HMP Thorn Cross, please refer to the map on this page.

Tel: 01925 805100

Operational capacity: 321

Arley Road, Appleton Thorn, Warrington, Cheshire WA4 4RL

Prison Phone have been saving inmates at HMP Thorn Cross money on their calls from the prison to any UK mobile phone since 2013.

We do this by allocating a dedicated and secure local number to your mobile phone, this means when the inmate at Thorn Cross prison calls the new local number we have provided they will be charged at just the local landline rate (around 10p per minute) rather than the standard mobile rate (which is around 40p per minute).

This in turn helps to stretch the inmates PINS phone credit further and reduces the amount you need to send in for them to top up!

Send me Thorn Cross prison details via FREE SMS

Here’s some facts about Thorn Cross Prison

HMP Thorn Cross is a category D prison in Appleton Thorn in Cheshire. Opened in 1985, the prison has capacity to hold 381 male inmates.

The residential units are spread between units A-G. A – E units each have 60 single rooms. F unit is the induction unit with nine shared (double) rooms. There are also four secure cells if required for prisoners transferring back to closed conditions. G unit consists 30 shared (double) rooms.

In 2012-14, there had been 57 absconds: an average of one every two weeks. It was revealed that an inmate could abscond simply by walking out of the gates. Some inmates in HMP Thorn Cross had been directly transferred from category A or B prisons, meaning abscond likeliness is high.

To view the latest HMIP inspection report, click here.

Visiting hours are 17:45 – 19:45 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 13:45 – 15:45 Fridays to Sundays, and 09:45 – 11:45 on Saturdays.

More Facts

FACT 1

In 2005, a report noted that the prison had one of the lowest re-offending rates in the country.

FACT 2

HMP Thorn Cross was one of the first prisons in the country to introduce a military-style regime for inmates, earning part of the prison the nickname of ‘boot-camp’.