Serco appoints Mark Hanson as Prison Director at HMP Dovegate
Serco announced today that Mark Hanson has taken over as the new Prison Director at HMP Dovegate, near Uttoxeter.
Image courtesy Serco
Mark (above) moves to his new role at Dovegate from Serco-run HMP Lowdham Grange, where he was the Prison Director since 2016, when he joined Serco from the Prison Service.
Prior to joining Serco, Mark spent 26 years in the Prison Service. He started at HMP Mount and was a Deputy Governor at an impressive and diverse number of prisons, including HMP Kennet, HMP Preston, HMP Wakefield and Governor at HMP Lindholme.
Talking about his new post, Mark said: “I am delighted to have moved to HMP Dovegate. As a Category ‘B’ prison with over 1,000 prisoners serving a range of sentences, as well as the specialist Therapeutic Centre, this prison has a complex and challenging group of prisoners.
“Despite the challenges that Covid has given the prison, Dovegate is a safe, well run and settled prison, with confident and engaged prisoners and knowledgeable staff.
“That is all down to an excellent management team and the hidden heroes who work here. They do an incredible job in challenging circumstances and I am looking forward to working with them.”
Opened in 2001, Serco manage HMP Dovegate on a 25 year contract as a category B prison, caring for over 1060 male adult prisoners over the age of 21 all serving a range of sentences including trial, remand, awaiting sentence and convicted men serving over four years to life. Dovegate, in Staffordshire, provides education – literacy, numeracy, IT and vocational skills – healthcare, industrial work opportunities, drug and alcohol counselling, accredited and non-accredited offender behaviour courses aimed at reducing criminogenic risk and thereby aiding release and resettlement of offenders.