‘I get really upset when I visit’: the harsh reality of life in a high-security hospital in England

When the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was transferred from a category A prison to Broadmoor hospital, many observers complained that he was getting off lightly.

But these places are anything but ‘cushy’, says the mother of one patient Rampton high-security hospital in Nottinghamshire was built in 1912. Everything about the bleak, remote facility for mentally ill people is forbidding, says Jan Neate. “I get really upset going there,” she says. “Even though I really want to see Jake, visiting is an ordeal. ” Jake, 45, is…