Full Sutton Prison opened in 1987 as a purpose-built maximum security prison for men. The
Home Office ordered an inquiry into Full Sutton in March 2000, after evidence emerged of racism among prison officers at the jail. The evidence centred on a log of an Asian inmate's phone conversations kept by two prison officers. The prison was in the news again in January 2003, when it emerged that inmates at Full Sutton were being paid as an incentive to learn to read and write. Payments of £1 to £3 were being made to prisoners for completing literacy and numeracy courses at the jail. On 4 September 2005, 77-year-old conman Sidney Noble was taken hostage in his cell by fellow inmate Ian Magowan. He was tied to a chair, beaten, cut and suffered asphyxia having reportedly had his chest crushed. He died two weeks later having never regained consciousness. Magowan received a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 16 years. A report by the
Chief Inspector of Prisons in December 2005 stated that gangs inside the prison were arranging "fight clubs" to pay off debts. The level of bullying and violence was so great that many wings were unsafe. There was evidence that gangs who had been operating on the streets continued to function inside the prison using intimidation. Security concerns had led to prisoners being denied access to outside sports facilities. In February 2006, the
Independent Monitoring Board criticised Full Sutton for high levels of drug use amongst prisoners. The board stated that illegal drugs were an "insidious disease" inside the prison. In February 2011, the convicted murderer Colin Hatch, who was jailed for the murder of seven-year-old Sean Williams in January 1994, was murdered in the prison by Damien Fowkes, an inmate who also attacked child killer
Ian Huntley, who survived. On 26 May 2013, a prison officer was taken hostage. He and a female colleague were injured; other officers successfully handled the incident. In March 2017, it was announced that a new prison would be built adjacent to the current one. The existing prison was to stay open during the development. In August 2018, category A inmate John Onyemaechi launched an attack on staff and began a fire in a prison wing's kitchen. Over 100 riot-trained prison officers were used to restore order and detain Onyemaechi, amounting to costs of over £15,000 in damages to the prison. On 13 October 2019,
Richard Huckle – one of Britain's most persistent convicted child sex offenders, serving twenty-two life sentences – was murdered in the prison. ==Prison buildings==