Newcastle Joinery Limited (NJL), specialists in industry-leading furniture for the custodial sector, today launched their new CastleSafe Plus range designed to meet the specific demands of modern Safer Cell environments.
An innovative solid surface material is used throughout. When in contact with natural or artificial light its active properties allow air purification, elimination of harmful bacteria and ensure easy cleaning. The material is also non-porous and in the case of a flooded cell it can stand in 10mm of water with no damage or deterioration.
The CastleSafe Plus range complies fully with the new Ministry of Justice Technical Standards issued in March 2019.
The Museums Association Esmee Fairburn Collection Fund has awarded £120,000 to the National Justice Museum to introduce its unique 200-year-old HM Prison Service collection to a wider audience.
The funding supports a three-year project ‘Ingenuity, Creativity, Hope’ involving people in prison, their families and ex-offenders in the development of the collection and its display in a new exhibition at the Nottingham-based Museum in 2022.
Welcoming the funding, National Justice Museum Artistic Programme Manager Andrea Hadley-Johnson said: “We’ll now be able to tell the largely unseen stories behind the historic objects we hold by involving people from the widest possible range of backgrounds in their curation.
Planned government changes to sentencing will add to pressures on our overcrowded and overstretched prisons, without reducing crime or improving public confidence, a new Prison Reform Trust report warns.
The latest edition of the Bromley Briefing Prison Factfile reveals that, contrary to the impression given in much recent political debate and media coverage, England and Wales have become much tougher in their approach to punishing serious crime over the past few decades, on a scale which exceeds comparable countries or historical precedent
PPSS Group Launch Next Generation Body Armour Offering Previously Unthinkable Levels Of Protection
PPSS Group's next generation of high-performance body armour is taking personal protection to a completely new-found level.
Made from Auxilam™, a unique carbon fibre composite material, this latest body armour will protect the wearer from even the most vicious and brutal types of edged weapon and shanks imaginable.
One of the facilitators for social enterprise Beyond Recovery staged his second solo art exhibition in the Noho Studios, Fitzrovia, London, recently. Artist Paul Lock featured incredible portraits of three of the men with whom Beyond Recovery has worked in prison and have since been released. Now Beyond Recovery apprentices, the men attended a private viewing of the exhibition – ‘You Simply Are II’ – on 24th September along with family and friends, including the Beyond Recovery team.
Prisons, courts and police stations have been given the opportunity to engage more collaboratively with the construction sector thanks to a major new procurement agreement which will help shape public sector construction.
All public sector bodies can use Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Construction Works and Associated Services agreement to find companies to help build things like new schools, hospitals, office buildings, universities, prisons, and houses. It has a maximum potential value of £30bn over the next seven years.
After more than four years delivering its insight-based programme to men in prison, Beyond Recovery started working with HMP Nottingham in March 2019. The team was asked to assist in the development of the prison's Incentivised Substance Free Living (ISFL) wing, by providing support to the men living there. David Kowitz, philanthropist, generously provided funding for Beyond Recovery to deliver their programme in Nottingham prison.
Held from 14-15 November at Whittlebury Park, Northampton, the Custodial Facilities Forum is a must-attend event for all those involved in the design and build, management and supply of delivering secure facilities, including prisons, detention centres, constabularies, courts, customs and immigration centres.
In the light of Boris Johnson’s recent government pledges to provide an additional £100M to boost security in our prisons and also promises to create 10,000 more prison places in our overly cramped ageing institutions, there are more opportunities to engage in this sector.
This is the only event of its kind for this sector and provides an invaluable opportunity to break down barriers, gain access to decision-makers and enable real business to be done between built environment professionals and suppliers.
High Security & Safety Group Develops Solutions for Challenging Custodial Market
Custodial security expert High Security & Safety Group is developing new solutions to meet the changing custodial market needs.
The latest figures, released by the Ministry of Justice, highlight the ongoing issue of staff and prisoner safety in custody. All figures, including assaults, self-harm and deaths, have increased on the previous year. At a time when the Government is trying to introduce its prison reform scheme – Prison Estates Transformation Programme (PETP) – it demonstrates the challenges this sector faces and the careful balance needed between safety, security and prisoner well-being.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcements about prisons in mid-August, the Prison Reform Trust wrote three letters seeking clarification:
- to the Permanent Secretary, Richard Heaton, about the sentencing review
- to the Secretary of State, Robert Buckland, about the £2.5bn for new prisons, and
- to the CEO of HMPPS, Jo Farrar, about the extra £100m for prison security
To their collective credit, they have replied only three weeks later, and with some detail. Their replies can be found at these links:
Inevitably, only some of our questions have been answered, and it pays to look closely.