The biggest prison in the UK should reach full capacity soon – with building work on track to end next month to allow the opening of the third and final wing. The first prisoners were moved to HMP Berwyn in Wrexham on February 28, into Bala wing, the first of three, designed ultimately to house 702 prisoners.
The second, Alwen, opened last month, with Ministry of Justice (MoJ) bosses confirming the third and final wing, Ceiriog, is on schedule to open, bringing the total capacity of adult male offenders to 2,106 – 500 more than the biggest current prison in England and Wales was built to hold.
The majority will be Category C, meaning they have been assessed as having a lower likelihood of escaping, though some Category B prisoners could also be accommodated. Governor Russ Trent has said his emphasis is on rehabilitation, with staff calling the prisoners ‘men’, who will have ‘rooms’ rather than cells. Construction of HMP Berwyn began in May 2015 and cost £250m.
The UK Government has pledged to spend £1.3bn on new prisons, and after the riots in HMP Birmingham late last year, Justice Secretary Liz Truss said the new Welsh prison ‘will help to reduce overcrowding across the estate’. Nine more new prisons are expected to be built, with five open by 2020.
Binns Fencing won the order to supply and install almost 2km of 5.2m high prison-standard secure perimeter fencing for the Wrexham prison. The fencing manufacturer Zaun supplied the MoJ-approved prison posts and fencing mesh. Binns has proposed a new model of perimeter security and PIDs (apssive infra-red detection) procurement and delivery, where it provides a single point of contact for the perimeter security package, reducing the firm claims complexity and the need to manage multiple contractors. It believes this could offer cost savings on PIDs cable installation and contract and project management costs.
