DORCHESTER Prison is one of the best in the country in spite of severe overcrowding, according to a survey carried out among its inmates.

The jail comes out top of the country's local prisons for the quality of life it creates for prisoners.

The accolade comes as Dorchester copes with being the seventh most overcrowded prison in the country and while major building renovation is under way.

An independent team asked prisoners what they thought about life inside.

And results out today reveal that prisoners' views show Dorchester is the best local prison in the country in most of the areas studied.

The survey for MQPL - Measuring the Quality of Prison Life - involved interviews with 103 prisoners.

The feedback put Dorchester top out of 39 local prisons in 11 of the 19 categories studied and second in a further five.

Deputy governor Steve Hodson said the results were a tribute to the staff and the good working relationship they establish with prisoners.

He said: "Nothing was missed. All the information came from prisoners, there was no input from staff. They asked prisoners if they wanted to take part and they picked out 103 - as staff we didn't know what was asked or what the responses were.

"So we were very pleased with the outcome. It's what the prisoners really think about life in Dorchester."

He said the top ratings come against a background of overcrowding and with difficulties caused by major building work as the prison undergoes a new roof and replacement windows.

The prison did exceptionally well in categories including race equality, healthcare, relationships with staff, fairness, well-being, entry into custody, drug culture and rating as a decent prison.

Two areas that dipped were offender behaviour and links with the outside community through visiting.

Mr Hodson said both showed improvements on the previous MQPL survey in early 2006. But behaviour was a difficult issue to deal with as programmes could not be implemented until prisoners were sentenced and moved on.

Dorchester's role is largely with remand prisoners awaiting sentence and inmates typically spend 42 days in the prison, though some are there for years.

And visiting would improve when the new purpose-built visitors' block was built - a replacement for the current outdated building is due to start next year.

Prison officer Matt Every, who works mostly on the segregation wing, said: "These results are good. It's a form of recognition for what we're all doing here. We're certainly heading in the right direction."

The report had special praise for staff. It said: Participants described officers as polite, respectful, supportive, fair and approachable and said they went out of their way to help prisoners.'