- innovative workshops to rehabilitate offenders and provide labour to local firms
- more than 1,100 local jobs created and £180 million invested in the community
Britain's newest prison was opened officially today by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, with an innovative design to protect the public by cutting crime and rehabilitating offenders while boosting the local economy.
Prisoners at HMP Fosse Way, in Leicester, will spend their time in jail learning new skills and getting trained in vital industries so they can find work immediately when back in the community and plug labour gaps.
This ethos has already been put into action with 71 prisoners and an ex-offenders employed in the construction of the new jail. With 24 workshops, and a large number of classrooms, skills learned by offenders will include how to drive construction vehicles in a simulator, manufacture glasses, and construct concrete components and lighting equipment that can be used in future prison builds.
HMP Fosse Way is the second of six state-of the-art prisons that utilise the latest designs and innovations to boost security, rehabilitate offenders and protect the public and protect the public by helping prisoners find work, which is proven to cut their chance of reoffending.
It is also the greenest prison ever constructed in the UK, thanks to greener fuels, renewable energy and electric construction machinery.
And today's opening means the government has now built more than 5,000 of the 20,000 places promised as part of its £4 billion construction programme - the biggest expansion of the prison estate since the Victorian era.
The new Category C prison will house 1,715 prisoners and create 600 jobs, on top of the 500 delivered during construction work - including 71 ex-offenders and prisoners released on temporary licence. These prisoners were subject to thorough risk assessments prior to their temporary release.
The build has also seen £180 million spent with construction suppliers in the local area during the project.
Fosse Way is Britain's latest 'smart' prison following the blueprint of HMP Five Wells, which opened last year. These prisons utilise the latest designs and innovations to protect the public and rehabilitate offenders:
- Smart design to boost security and cut crime behind bars - X-shaped blocks with wider, shorter corridors and fewer prisoners on each wing allow frontline staff to see all cells and offenders quickly at any one time. Cells have ultra-secure, bar-less windows to help to put an end to the smuggling of illegal drugs, phones and weapons into jails
- Smart technology to rehabilitate offenders - prisoners will have in-cell devices to access education and learning from inside their cell, kitted out with stringent and robust security to ensure they are not abused, and airport-style body scanners will prevent contraband from wreaking havoc on the wings
- Its state-of-the-art workshops designed to train offenders for employment on release include:
- A concrete components workshop that can provide sections for future prison builds supported by a computer-aided design education qualification. Prisoners eligible for release on temporary licence will be able to go out and work on other construction sites
- An LED lighting workshop, where prisoners assemble components, some of which will be used in future prison builds
- An optical lab, making glasses, where The Prisons Opticians Trust trains prisoners in retail and laboratory skills
- A music classroom, where a record company will help offenders train in music production for industry qualifications
- A driving simulator, where prisoners can learn how to drive construction vehicles in preparation for getting a HGV permit on ROTL/release
The Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, said:
HMP Fosse Way is part of our new approach to prisons - creating safe, modern places that utilise the latest technology to place rehabilitation and cutting crime at their core.
Its opening means we are a quarter of the way toward completion of the biggest prison-building programme in more than a century.
The cutting-edge design will give offenders every opportunity to turn around their lives, while also providing a significant boost in this government's drive to grow the economy.
At HMP Fosse Way the Lord Chancellor met with frontline prison staff to witness the new technologies and workshops that will help prisoners turn their backs on crime for good.
Around 1,715 offenders will be housed at the site when it reaches capacity, with 600 people employed in a range of operational and non-operational roles.
The new jail, on the site of the old HMP Glen Parva, started accepting a small number of prisoners, on time, on 29 May. It is the second of 6 planned new prisons and will be operated by Serco following a competitive tendering process.
Planning permission for an additional houseblock has also been secured, which will add around 250 places to Fosse Way's capacity.
The name was selected by the local community and reflects the history of the area - the Fosse Way is a Roman road that runs through Leicestershire. The next new prison will be HMP Millsike, under construction next to HMP Full Sutton in East Yorkshire, and locations have been identified for a further three across the country, subject to planning approval.
These projects will create thousands of jobs for local communities and see millions invested in local roads and infrastructure, while rehabilitating thousands of offenders and keeping the public safe.
The government is also putting in place immediate extra capacity, including rolling out hundreds of rapid deployment cells - with the first of these already in place at HMP Norwich and HMP Hollesley Bay.
Anthony Kirby, Serco Chief Executive, UK & Europe, said:
Serco is proud to have been awarded the contract to manage HMP Fosse Way for the next 10 years.
We have a strong track record of running safe, secure prisons in the UK, Australia and New Zealand and we have put together a first class management team to run the prison, are recruiting and training around 600 people from the local community and setting up a series of industry partnerships that will all make a significant impact on prisoner rehabilitation.
David Cadiot, Lendlease's Executive General Manager for construction in the UK regions, said:
We've a proven track record of delivering projects to the very highest standards and with economic, social and environmental benefits in the communities where we work. At HMP Fosse Way we've exceeded all of our targets in relation to sustainability and social value; and it's been particularly satisfying to have created 485 new jobs of which 67 are former prisoners or those near to release. We've also provided 65 apprenticeships and spent over £475,000 on voluntary, community or social enterprise throughout the project. It's been an outstanding project and one we're proud to have delivered for the Ministry of Justice.
