Background

Western Custody Suite is a £13 million custody block that is able to house up to 60 prisoners. It is an absolute state-of-the-art facility and a beacon of how such buildings should be constructed.

Approach

For the Western Custody Suite we received a design that fell short of the BSRIA Stage 4a mark. This meant a lot of the layout would not fit within the confines of the architecture and structure. This was due, in part, to the ambition of the project and the final custody environment that was envisaged.

The work involved in overcoming these issues meant a lot of workshopping and Blue Thorn coming up with possible solutions and alternatives to get the services in.

Result

A fully function custody suite that is not attached to a police station serving the West Midlands community. It provides cells for disabled occupants, high-risk of self-harm individuals and provides a safe environment both for detainees and for staff.

The entire suite can be monitored from a central control desk which operates a lot remote equipment