East Sutton Park Prison is based in and around an Elizabethan brick house, East Sutton Park, dating from 1570 and overlooking
the Weald of Kent. The building was requisitioned at the start of
World War II, first opened as a
borstal for girls in 1946, then was re-registered to take both juvenile and adult females some years later. In 2016 a report by His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons found "East Sutton Park to be an excellent prison where the very strong staff-prisoner relationships underpinned safety and a respectful and purposeful approach to preparing women for release. Violence of any kind was extremely rare and the tensions related to communal living were usually resolved through informal mediation rather than formal disciplinary processes". ==The prison today==