HMP Huntercombe will detain only foreign offenders
- Published
A prison in Oxfordshire which was formerly used as a young offenders institution will now detain only foreign national inmates.
The Ministry of Justice said this would make it easier for foreign offenders to be deported by the UK Border Agency following their sentences.
HMP Huntercombe, near Nuffield, will remain a Category C institution.
Henley MP John Howell said it would be a "gradual transition".
He said: "This is a transition that has already started but will take some time because existing prisoners there who are nearing their sentence end won't simply be moved on."
Cannot be trusted
The facility, between Wallingford and Henley-on-Thames, was first used as an internment camp in World War II for foreign nationals.
At one point it held Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess.
HMP Huntercombe opened after the war as a prison in 1946 and became a youth offenders institution for prisoners aged 15 to 18 in 2000.
In June 2010, it was decommissioned and then reopened in October as a Category C jail for men.
Category C prisons are used for offenders who cannot be trusted in an open environment but who are not thought to be at risk of escaping.