Judith Johnson on Newbury Custody Suite

I first interviewed Judith Johnson four years ago, when she was in charge of custody for the Force and had just started on a massive custody expansion program designed to create a future-proof set of facilities.
Slough Police Station had just completed a massive custody suite refurbishment program. This involved gutting the existing suite and rebuilding the facilities within the same footprint. This included a new custody desk, more cells and interview rooms. In-cell CCTV and cell to front desk communication were also introduced for the first time in the West Berkshire Police area.

Since we last met at Slough, what  has happened to the refurbishment program during the last four years?

Judith Johnson  The original vision to move from the original 13 custody suites we had in operation, to having five big, well resourced and well equipped units that were spread evenly throughout the force area of operation, is nearing completion. It is a complete rethink of how we use our custody facilities and has resulted in massive economies of scale and efficiency. We have now achieved five gold standard custody suites which have 30 cells or more. The remainder of the 13 custody units, have either been closed down, or are being used temporarily at times of high demand.

You just said that the aim was to get to 5 custody suites of about 30 cells in each. So why are we sitting in a newly rebuilt custody suite in Newbury and it only has 14 cells?

Judith Johnson There is a requirement that no one will have to travel more than 20 miles to get to a custody suite. Newbury and Banbury are both more than 20 miles from any of the other major gold standard custody suites. So we have had to maintain these two small units, in order to fit in with custody requirements. This is simply a result of the geography of the force area.
Completely rebuilding Newbury was necessary, because it was the worst custody suite in the force area, from a health and safety point of view. It lacked any in-cell sanitation and was quite frankly, in an appalling condition. So it was decided that refurbishment was not an option and it was more cost-effective to completely knock down the old custody suite and build this brand-new one.
Over the four-year period, we have been developing our new custody suites and all the knowledge that we have gained whilst working alongside our custody partner, Beard Construction, has been applied to this project. Now we have the best layout and technology that we could ask for.

Is this the last custody suite to be developed, or is there another one?

Judith Johnson The footings at the last one, Abingdon, are just being dug as we speak. This will increase capacity there from 14 cells to over 30, which will make it the largest custody suite in the force.

When we last talked four years ago, you had a good idea of how you wanted the custody suites to look, what you wanted in them and their layout and location. How much has changed, in terms of what you have been able to build and how have the ideas developed?

Judith Johnson This is a massive investment that Thames Valley police have put in. Not much has changed from the original concept. This is quite a result for the original liaison team. We had to determine how many cells and facilities Thames Valley Police would need to future-proof their requirement for the next 30, 40 or 50 years. We had to do it the most efficient way for handling prisoners, whilst maximising the facilities and resources. The planning and research that we did four years ago, has undergone some development however, we now have very much what we envisaged four years ago. That is extremely rewarding to me.
Because of the Safer Detention guidelines, we now have a lot of other Forces looking at what we’ve achieved here. We comply and exceed the national standards and requirements that must be adhered to. We are now one of the best placed Forces in relation to those standards.

This particular facility is shared with Newbury Magistrates Court. How has that affected the design and requirements?

Judith Johnson We have always shared custody facilities with the Magistrates Court in Newbury, so the refurbishment process included their requirement from the outset. From a logistics point of view, it involved getting everybody around the table to discuss things like the loss of car parking spaces, while the temporary custody suite was in residence in the car park. From a custody usage perspective, we already had very accurate ideas about the requirements of the Magistrate’s Court for cell usage and were able to build them into the model. So much of it comes down to working closely with all those involved and the liaison team taking into account everybody’s needs. Another issue was noise while the construction was taking place. You simply cannot build without making noise and so some days when the noise levels were high, the Magistrate’s Court had to locate to another site. The result of all this, is that we now have a superb facility with additional capacity, should we need a certain operation. It’s a win-win situation.

The introduction of technology was an issue we discuss four years ago. The provision of in-cell CCTV and in-cell communications has been augmented by these new Chubb locks that have been tied into the heating system to save energy. What has enabled these to be used on the later developments?

Judith Johnson The ability to include new developments as the programme has moved forward, has been made possible by the partners we’ve had in the whole build programme being the same throughout. I refer to Beard Construction and the other subcontractors and equipment suppliers we have worked with since the beginning. So the lessons have been learnt about security, locks, heat exchangers etc. Then these have been able to be brought into later developments.

Technology has changed considerably over the last four years. What developments are you most pleased to see in that time?

Judith Johnson I can remember the battle we had to get CCTV into every cell in Slough. I can recall people telling me that they weren’t sure about that, whether they were needed and whether it could or should be done. The situation now is that people wonder if there was ever a time when we didn’t have CCTV in cells!

Judith, thank you for talking to Custodial Review.