Prison plans to resolve ‘legacy issues’ and upgrade facilities

The long-running shower problems experienced on J-wing will be largely remedied this year, subject to required approvals and capital funding, and several repairs and painting jobs will also look to be completed, as well as the replacement and removal of a number of features.

Prison governor John De Carteret said it was an exciting prospect to be able to get to work and remedy the showers in particular, as it has been an ongoing concern that has been waiting several years to be fixed.

‘The showers have been a real legacy issue that all of the prison governors have had to contend with,’ he said.

‘I think we’ve got to the bottom of the problem though and are confident that we can sort it out.’

A professional survey proved that the issues were being caused by problems deep within the water system of the infrastructure, where it provides the hot water from, so simply replacing the shower front end would not solve the issue.

This work will see a major upgrade of the facilities that will also mean the prison will be compliant with regard to disabled access to the affected areas.

In relation to this, the J-wing laundry will be decommissioned and the prison will move to a more efficient centralised laundry area.

‘We’ve been working with our partners, Property Services, who have come up with some plans and we’re very hopeful that we might actually get a solution this time around,’ Mr De Carteret added.

‘I think that what we need to look at is providing facilities that reflect the diverse needs of the population, in addition to ensuring that we’ve got facilities that would assist people with mobility issues.

‘It’s really about maximising the resources that we’ve got available to us and all the space. There is a knock-on effect of repairs as once you find one thing you find something else.’

A prison population that started with 93 inmates at the beginning of the year has seen an unusually high numbers of minority groups in the case of six women and three juveniles.

‘They’ve got different requirements as far as physical day-to-day needs are concerned,’ said Mr De Carteret.

‘It’s different putting women or children into custody than men into custody. They’re all very different populations and we have to factor this into the prison layout and regimes.’

External repairs and painting of the prison have also been discussed with Property Services and the States will be going out to tender for this soon.

There are plans to introduce building painting as part of the annual preventative maintenance programme once the fabric has been redecorated.

Other essential work to be delivered in 2020 includes a replacement of the cell call system and the ageing wing-based air handling units, as well as the removal of disconnected fire hoses as the prison now has specialised air misting units to handle cell fire emergencies.