TWO of the region's prisons will become "reform prisons" in the biggest shake-up of the system since the Victorian era.

HMP Holme House in Stockton, and HMP Kirklevington Grange, near Yarm, are two of six prisons nationally to become semi-autonomous.

The change will be announced as the Government's parliamentary agenda for the next six months is set out in the Queen's Speech.

One of Europe's biggest jails, HMP Wandsworth, is among the half dozen institutions - including Holme House and Kirklevington - where governors will be given sweeping new powers over all key areas of management.

Under the initiative, governors will get much greater financial and legal power over areas such as budgets, opting out of national contracts, operational control on education, family visits, and partnerships to provide prison work and rehabilitation services.

Number 10 said the move, along with an overhaul of prison education, will see social reform and "extending life chances" promoted as the key themes of the legislative programme.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "For too long, we have left our prisons to fester. Not only does that re-inforce the cycle of crime, increasing the bills of social failure that taxpayers must pick up, it writes off thousands of people.

"So today, we start the long-overdue, long-needed change that our prisons need. No longer will they be warehouses for criminals; they will now be places where lives are changed."

Justice Secretary Michael Gove said: "By trusting governors to get on with the job, we can make sure prisons are places of education, work and purposeful activity. These reforms will reduce re-offending, cut crime and improve public safety."

The changes will see prisons established as independent legal entities with the power to enter into contracts, generate and retain income, and establish their own boards with external expertise, in what Mr Gove called the biggest shake-up for more than a century.

Ministers were also announcing that satellite tracking tags which monitor the movements of offenders using GPS technology will be piloted in eight police areas, but none of these were in the North-East or North Yorkshire.