Would you buy a home near a prison?

[DAISYBELLAxx]

We have found what would be the perfect home for us, but it is located a couple of houses away from a category C prison.

I have attached images of the house itself. It has been on the market since January, which makes me think that maybe people do not want to buy it because of that.

Am I overthinking? The prison is in a very nice area of Surrey. We are going to view it on Saturday but am planning to do a couple of drive bys at different times to see the situation. We also plan to have children in the future, I worry that this wouldn't be a safe environment for them.

Thank you.

Honestly if there's something that makes you feel uneasy about a property then don't buy it, it doesn't matter if it's a justified fear, it bothers you so find something that doesn't xx

The last place a sex offender is going to hang around is a prison!!! Sex offenders leaving prison will have to report immediately to probation so will get a leg on to go there, or will get as far away as possible. I'd say it is one of the least likely places they will willingly hang around.

Sex offenders could live next to you right now and you wouldn't know it. At least any that are there will be locked up

Also I'm fairly sure, it's been a while since I worked there, but they don't hold sex offenders.

It might have changed but I remember a few years ago hmp and coldingley wouldn't hold sex offenders as they don't offer the courses they need to do and could not guarantee their safety so would refuse to accept them.

It does have a drug rehabilitation wing,but any prisoner released on temporary licence is drug tested on leaving and coming back into the prison.and those who are released after serving their sentences are heading home probably not wanting to check out the local area

Buy a home near one?
It is my home!!!

Only 11 released a month!!

Honestly, I'd find it off-putting and may effect resale

We live near a cat D prison, not as close as you will be, about 10 min walk. There is a nursery right next door. Lots of locals buy food from their gardens, they also repair and sell bikes from their shop.

You see the prisoners all getting the bus into the city in the morning but that’s it.

im not 100% happy we live so close, regularly prisoners walk out and don’t come back, but I live by the belief that they are trying to get as far away as possible so won’t be hanging around here.

My DH laughed at me when I realised how close we were as I grew up minutes from a Cat B prison that had several escapes when I was younger.

Hello everyone! Thank you again for your advice.

We did a drive by yesterday evening, and the prison is actually directly opposite and it is a bit of an eye sore more than anything!

I am going to open minded when we look tomorrow, but got a strange and isolated feeling when being there. X

I work near a prison. The only thing I've really noticed is extra police/ambulance visits to the area if they need to attend to a prisoner.

I'd rather live near a prison than a hospital any day!

I stayed at a friend's house that backs on to the back of a major London hospital - I barely got a wink of sleep!

Not disturbed so much by arriving ambulances as they went in at the side of the hospital and have presumably switched off the sirens by then, but lots of activity at various times of the night, and very early deliveries.

In the very early hours around 01.00 the stillness would be interrupted by the sound of staff on their break yelling into mobile phones. One woman spent her whole 30 minute break screeching away!

It's not the practicalities it's the feeling - I couldn't live in eyesight of any prison as my mind would play on the prisoners and their miserable experiences right next to my nice free life - not everyone in prison is a bad person, some have just made stupid choices or were young and inexperienced ( thinking driving convictions, theft). I feel this when I drive past our local prison so know its not for me.

@DAISYBELLAxx how did the viewing go

I have a friend who lives actually in the grounds of an open prison. She pays no council tax, the inmates do her garden, and she's never had a moment of bother in a decade of being there.

I live a few hundred metres from a prison and rarely give it a second's thought

I would do this just for the free gardening!

Yes no problem because most criminals tend not to shit on their own doorstep and if they do it's likely they would be easily aprihended as their DNA will be on file. Most criminals would steer clear. Cat C prisons are usually with people who are showing strong signs of rehabilitation and want to straighten their life up or have been involved in a skirmish (fighting) after a drunken night out and are very low risk of reoffending.

Quite a few houses in Bisley were for prison officers and their families. I don’t know whether that’s still the case. We lived in the next village and I worked at the school in Bisley for a few years. There didn't seem to be a problem.