Carr will be isolated at Holloway

Maxine Carr is likely to lead an isolated life during her time on remand at Holloway.

Governors are almost certain to decide that she must be kept apart from other inmates at the north London jail.

Carr arrived at the jail yesterday lunchtime and within hours was visited by a medical officer to assess her mental and physical state.

It is not known if the process ended with her being put on suicide watch, known as "2052 cases" in Prison Service bureaucracy.

But if that was the doctor’s conclusion, officers would check on the 25-year-old every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day.

Holloway first opened in 1851 and has been a women-only jail since 1903.

But no trace remains of the original jail buildings thanks to a massive rebuilding project between 1975 and 1985.

Just seven years ago, conditions at Holloway were so appalling that the then Chief Inspector of Prisons, David Ramsbotham, walked out in disgust, and although the situation has improved vastly, the jail still has its problems.

In March, nine female prison officers who allegedly ran a regime of sexual bullying and intimidation of younger staff at Holloway were transferred to other duties.

It followed a five month inquiry into claims that a hard core of women officers, all of them lesbian, among the 338 staff, sexually harassed new female recruits and intimidated male officers.

The new governor Edd Willetts, who took over earlier this year, is highly thought of in the Prison Service as a very able manager.