As ex-prisoners sue over claims that high levels of radon gas have led to serious illnesses, taxpayers continue to foot the rental bill
The village of Princetown sits surrounded by the desolate beauty of Dartmoor national park. It should, in theory, be a hub for the more than 2 million people a year who come to explore the bogs, granite tors and windswept moorland that in part inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Today it more closely resembles a mining community after the pits closed. Dartmoor prison, which provided jobs for many residents, has been closed since last summer after the discovery of dangerous levels of radon gas. The prison museum, a former tourist attraction, is also closed, and the prison officers’ club is derelict. Quiet streets bear testimony to the ghostly finger of financial fate.
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