DURHAM Prison's controversial female centre, once nicknamed 'She-Wing,' is to close in a re-grading of the 180-year-old city jail.

The prison will also no longer take category A male inmates under plans announced on Thursday.

Both moves were confirmed by the Prison Service, which plans to re-role Durham as a community prison, catering mainly for short-term offenders, within the newly-formed National Offender Management Service.

The opening of purpose-built accommodation for women at Bronzefield and Peterborough and spare capacity in the rest of the service's 'high security' estate means there is no longer the need to hold either female prisoners or category A male inmates at Durham.

Prison Service deputy director Peter Atherton said: "The decision to re-role Durham wasn't taken lightly and we intend to manage the transition very carefully over the coming months.

"Durham already has an excellent reputation for its resettlement programmes and also for forging strong links with the community. I have no doubt that Durham will build on the good work it already does and in these areas to become a centre of excellence for managing and resettling short-term offenders.

"The prison will take a leading role in the development of offender management and will be developing and implementing best practices that will provide a model for other prisons throughout the service.

"Developing Durham into a community prison will enable staff to specialise in resettling short-term prisoners in the North-East and therefore play an important role in helping to establish the National Offender Management Service."

Mr Atherton acknowledged potential staff concerns over the changes, but stressed there would be no redundancies resulting from the reclassification of the prison.

The report of the Prison Service's Chief Inspector on the jail, to be published later in the week, is expected to reinforce conclusions widely held in prison circles that Durham is no longer suitable for holding women prisoners.

About 100 of the prison's 700-capacity is in the female centre.

Durham became a high security establishment within the Prison Service in 1999.