Bridgwater Police Custody Suite Visit 3rd April 2017
Woolavington WI members visited Bridgwater Custody Suite. Our guide for this visit was Nicola Hale.
There are 36 cells in the custody unit, two of which are for vulnerable people, e.g. Juveniles, self harmers, those with mental health issues. As well as three custody desks and holding rooms there are consultation rooms for discussions with solicitors, interview rooms, finger printing/camera room, nurse's room, intoxicator room, exhibits store. A wash room for 'inmates' provides a shower, toothbrush and shaving facilities if they are deemed to be responsible enough to use, in order that they may attend court looking presentable, but very often these facilities are declined! A kitchen provides miscreants with breakfast and microwave meals and there is also an exercise yard for those who are detained for a longer period than overnight.
All detainees will have their shoes removed, together with anything else that may be used in a harmful manner, with some being issued with anti-rip suits if they are considered to potentially harm themselves.
There is a CCTV bridge with monitoring stations each having five screens from which all aspects of security are managed. With the corridors having alarms installed in the entire length of the walls, should any of these alarms be activated then all cameras automatically zoom in on the trouble area and officers immediately attend to assist colleagues.
There are teams of Detention Officers (a civilian role) covering 24/7 with each team covering three roles with at least one female on each team - A covers the bridge, CCTV, incoming telephone calls, maintains safety, B covers solicitors, nurses etc and C covers cells welfare (food, washing, blankets, talking and listening). One important aspect of welfare is to ensure that detainees are safe, particularly if they are under the influence of drink or drugs and at regular intervals they should ask them three questions, i.e. Date of birth, day of week etc. Detainees are usually woken around 5.30am in order to prepare them for court and ensure that they have eaten, washed, taken any medication that may be required.
The numbers in cells can be very random at any given time, but obviously the busiest times are on a Friday and Saturday.