GB2502041A

GB2502041A - A modular holding cell

Info

Publication number: GB2502041A
Application number: GB1204695.9A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Bernard Charles Gravett
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-03-16
Filing date: 2012-03-16
Publication date: 2013-11-20
Anticipated expiration: 2032-03-16
Also published as: WO2013136084A1; GB2502041B8; GB2502041B; GB201204695D0

Abstract

A holding cell for detaining an individual comprises a door and a number of separable parts comprising at least one side wall panel. The cell is arranged to be installed into an existing space, such as a building or a vehicle, by securing the parts together, and hanging the door. At least one of the parts may comprise a seat unit. When assembled the cell may have no internal ligature points and may have anti pick mastic covering joints between parts. The parts and door may be provided flat packed prior to assembly. A modular prison facility may comprise more than one holding cell secured together, the cells may be arrangable in more than one way. The parts may be of metal, wood and plastic, or a combination. The parts may be secured together by screws, bolts, rivets, tongue and groove, latches, nails and hooks.

Description

A Holding Cell and Modular Holding Facility

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a holding cell and a holding facility comprising two or more holding cells.

Background

The present inventor has appreciated that an on-going problem experienced by many police forces in the UK and around the world is a shortage of custody capacity.

Building new custodial facilities is extremely expensive, and can require long term projects, which in the current financial climate is undesirable. This shortage of custody capacity is being experienced at a time when the public and many communities desire that more offenders be brought to justice.

In the UK, a typical police cell costs in the region of £100,000 to construct and will contain a bed and a toilet facility.

In the UK, around 80% of people that are detained by the police are dealt with within a short space of time. Consequently, cells are often occupied by short term minor crime and non-violent offenders, which means that cells are not available when needed for violent and serious offenders. On occasions such as this, the violent or serious offender must then be taken to another site where they can be detained, which can impact on the police investigation quality, cost and timescales. It is not unusual for police stations across London and the UK to be regularly closed due to being full to capacity, with detainees being diverted miles away for available cell space.

Furthermore, persons answering bail for administrative purposes are rarely at the station beyond a few hours. Current procedures and regulations within the UK dictate that, once in custody, they must be housed in a cell despite the fact that they would not need the full facilities of a typical cell.

There are many other situations where individuals suspected of committing crime are detained. For example, some agencies that have a need to detain individuals include police, store detectives, immigration officers and security staff at airports and ports.

Currently, shoplifters are often taken to an office in the store where they might pose a risk, in case they turn violent. Waiting times for the arrival of police for retail crime are often in hours, and the suspect has to be held while waiting for the arrival of the police.

Verbal or physical abuse from detained suspects of retail crime towards store staff is commonplace, with one recent study indicating that nearly half of the retail staff questioned in the study reported physical attacks or assaults in their stores in the previous 12 months and threats of physical violence were experienced in around 72% of stores. As previously mentioned, holding cells that are typically used by the police are extremely expensive to build and also require a large area (often whole purpose-built buildings) to be set aside for their construction. The prohibitive cost and undesirable use of space means that, for most retail stores, the use of holding cells is not a viable option, despite the problems with abuse previously discussed.

The military in a number of countries have come under severe criticism concerning the conditions in which they hold prisoners and detainees. The conditions can be inadequate, often in fast moving and difficult environments. Such conditions have led to legal action against governments and in the worst case it is believed that the poor conditions contribute to abuse.

Summary

It is an object of at least some embodiments of the present invention to provide a holding cell that can be quickly and cheaply installed to provide a permanent, semi-permanent or temporary solution suitable for detaining an individual for a short period of time. This can be achieved by forming the holding cell from a number of separate (for example "flat pack') parts that can be secured together at the location in which it is to be installed. A further object of at least some embodiments of the present invention is to provide a modular holding facility comprising two or more holding cells. According to some embodiments, the holding facility can quickly and easily have modules added to or removed from it in accordance with changes in local requirements and demands.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a holding cell for detaining an individual, the holding cell comprising a door and a number of separable parts comprising at least one side wall, wherein the cell is arranged to be installed into an existing space by securing the parts together, and hanging the door.

Embodiments of the present invention may provide a fast and cheap solution to a lack of custodial facilities. They may also provide a semi-permanent or temporary custodial solution at a location that would not benefit from having a permanent large scale holding cell or facility. Embodiments of the present invention may also provide a custodial facility that can be quickly installed, uninstalled and redeployed as may be required by fast changing requirements. Embodiments of the present invention may further provide a permanent solution for securely holding detainees for short periods of time (for example up to 6 hours), and which may be used alongside and complementary to traditional holding cells.

The number of separable pads can comprise at least two side walls, and may further comprise one or more of the list comprising: a floor part, a ceiling part and a back wall.

The number of separable parts may further comprise a front wall onto which the door is hung, the front wall defining a opening which is arranged to be closed by closing the door.

One or more of the separable pads may comprise means that enable the holding cell to be secured to a wall and/or a floor located at the existing space into which the holding cell is to be installed.

The separable parts may be arranged to be secured together by one, or a combination of the list comprising; screws, bolts, rivets, tongue and groove, latches, nails and hocks.

The separable parts may be formed of one or a combination of the list comprising metal, wood, plastic and wood shrouded with metal.

A seat may be integrally formed into one of the separable parts.

The cell may be arranged to be installed such that when the separable parts of the cell are secured together, the inside of the cell does not contain any ligature points.

The cell may be provided with one or more devices of the list comprising: air-conditioning, CCTV, light and intercom, and one or more of said devices may be concealed. The one or more of said devices may be concealed in a top panel in a separable ceiling part.

The holding cell may further comprise anti-pick mastic to cover at least one joint between two or more separable parts on the inside of the holding cell.

The door and separable parts of the holding cell may be arranged to be flat packed prior to installation.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a modular holding facility for detaining individuals, the facility comprising an arrangement of two or more modules, wherein each module comprises a holding cell as claimed in any one of the

previous statements.

The facility may further comprise at least one connecting means to fasten two or more modules together.

The two or more modules may be able to be arranged in more than one way.

The modular holding facility may be installed in a pre-existing space within a building.

The modular holding facility may be installed in or on a vehicle.

Brief DescriQtion of the Drawings

Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a number of separate parts which can be provided to form a holding cell; Figures 2a and 2b are perspective views of a holding cell according to a first embodiment; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a holding cell according to a second embodiment; Figure 4 is a perspective view of a holding cell according to a third embodiment; Figures 5a and 5b are perspective views of two different embodiments of a modular holding facility; and Figure 6 shows a perspective view of a modular holding facility installed inside a room.

Detailed Description

As discussed above, there is a large demand for holding cells in which individuals can be detained. In police stations an increasing problem being experienced is that of lack of available holding cells due to many holding cells already being occupied by individuals, a large majority of whom do not need the full facilities of a traditional cell as they are only being detained for a short period of time. In addition to the situation experienced by the police, many other environments that would benefit from holding cells are not able to use them, due to the prohibitive cost to build them, as well as the large amount of space required.

A holding cell will now be described, with reference to the figures, that addresses the problems outlined above, by providing a structure suitable for detaining an individual for a relatively short period of time (for example up to 6 hours). The structure is formed from a number of separate sections (preferably the sections are flat pack') such that it can be installed into existing spaces in a building relatively quickly. Whilst a flat pack solution is preferable, it is also expected that the sections could be non flat-pack, for example if one section comprised a side wall and the back wall (giving rise to an "L-shaped" section). This has its own advantages, for example the number of sections could be reduced, and the time required to construct the cell may be reduced.

The expected cost of the holding cell is considerably less than that for a traditional holding cell. The holding cell is intended to be capable of passing the standards, guidelines and regulations typically required by local authorities. In particular, the holding cell described herein is understood to meet the current UK Home Office regulations as at the time of writing.

The holding cell enables custody facilities to be increased quickly and at low cost when existing facilities are oversubscribed or where demand has increased. In addition the holding cell can also be easily broken down and redeployed in order to meet changes in demand across a number of locations.

Whilst in the present specification the holding cell is referred to mainly in the context of a holding cell in a police station, it is understood that the holding cell is expected to be suitable for use in a number of locations and situations including, but not limited to, use by police outside of police stations (e.g. for temporary custody during large events such as riots or protests), in ports and airports, in shops and shopping centres, in football grounds and at other sporting venues, and also use by the military.

Figure 1 shows a number of separate parts which can be assembled to form a holding cell. The separate parts shown in figure 1 are: two side walls 2, a rear wall 3, a door 4, a front wall 5 into which the door 4 fits, a ceiling 6 and a floor 7. The door 4 comprises two windows 9 and a lock 10. Depending on the requirements of the holding cell, and the location in which it is to be installed, not all these parts may be required. For example, if the holding cell is to be installed against a solid back wall, the rear wall 3 may not be required. The parts can be formed from a number of materials such as metal, plastic or wood shrouded with metal. Again, the material from which the parts are made can differ according to the requirements of the holding cell. For example, for a holding cell that is to be installed as a permanent installation in a police station, it may be desirable to use wood shrouded with 2mm steel to form the walls, however, for a holding cell that is to be installed in the back of a van or another vehicle, it may be more desirable to use a more lightweight material such as high-impact plastic (e.g. polycarbonate). Furthermore, the use of plastic may be more cost efficient for a holding cell that is to be installed in a retail location to detain shop-lifters, and which arguably does not need to be as strong and robust as a holding cell in a police station.

The parts shown in Figure 1 can be secured together in a number of ways, for example the parts may be bolted together, secured together using rivets, latched together or fastened together using a tongue and groove method. Appropriate methods of securing the parts together can be used according to how and where the holding cell is going to be used. For example, in some situations (for example military situations) it may be desirable to be able to very quickly deploy, but also to breakdown and redeploy the holding cell in a different location, in which case bolts or latches may be more desirable than, for example, rivets.

The separable sections can be appropriately sized such that the holding cell, when fully constructed, has a width and/or depth of at least 0.50m, 0.80m, 1.OOm or 1.50m, or at most 3.OOm, 2.50m or 2.OOm.

Figures 2a and 2b show a holding cell 1 that has been put together using the parts shown in Figure 1, and show the holding cell 1 with the door 4 open and closed respectively. Some of the bolts 8 that are used to secure the pads together are shown.

The door 4 comprises 2 large windows 9 through which an occupant of the holding cell can easily see out, and also anyone outside the holding cell can easily see inside. The windows 9 may be formed of toughened glass or transparent high impact plastic.

Traditional holding cells typically have a door which only has a small observation window and/or service hatch. The reason for providing the presently described holding cell with a large viewable area (i.e. windows 9), is so that the detainee can be effectively monitored from the outside more easily, and from a distance, without the person on duty having to approach the door each time to peer through a small hatch. It also allows a number of holding cells to be monitored together simultaneously when viewed from a suitable distance.

A secondary reason for the large viewable area is to reduce the psychological effect of the reduced size of the presently described holding cell compared to a typical holding cell on the detainee. The detainee will experience less of a "claustrophobic" feeling due to being able to see more of the environment around the location of the holding cell. A major contributing factor to detainees "acting up" and behaving in an unruly manner is due to them feeling forgotten about, and/or that they are not being given enough attention. The large window will allow the detainee to see the person(s) on duty and that they are being monitored and attended to, thus alleviating many of the feelings that lead to unruly behaviour.

In a further embodiment that is not shown in the figures, the holding cell comprises further windows provided in the front wall portion that are level with the windows provided in the door. The purpose of these further window portions is to ensure that there are no areas within the holding cell in which a detainee could hide out of view of the person monitoring them. It is envisaged that other parts could also be provided with window portions, for example a side wall may be provided with windows. This would give the holding cell a much larger viewing angle from which a detainee could be monitored from the outside.

Figure 2b shows the lock 10 on the outside of the door, but Figure 2a shows that there is no corresponding lock on the inside of the cell. This is similar to standard holding cell doors. The lack of a lock on the inside means that the detainee is unable to pick the lock, thus making the holding cell more secure. The door shown in the figures is suitable for use in a police holding cell, but it will be understood that other embodiments (for example holding cells used by retail stores instead of police) may comprise a latch or handle in addition to or instead of the lock, and in some further embodiments, a handle or similar could be also be provided on the inside of the cell, the only requirement being that, once locked, the detainee is unable to open the cell from the inside. In a preferred embodiment, which complies with UK Home Office regulations and guidelines, no handle is provided on the inside of the holding cell as it would present a clear ligature point, and also provide an opportunity for a resistant detainee to hold the door shut from the inside using the handle.

The joints between Iwo or more of the parts that are secured together is covered using anti-pick mastic after installation to reduce the possibility of a detainee damaging the holding cell at these joints.

Figure 3 shows an alternative embodiment of the holding cell, which further comprises a seat 11, in the form of a bench, that is built into the holding cell. The seat is formed as part of the rear wall 3, such that when the rear wall 3 is secured to the side walls 2 and the floor 7, no ligature points are formed within the cell 1.

Figure 4 shows a further alternative embodiment of the holding cell 1. The holding cell further comprises anchor or fixing points 12 and 13 (e.g. flanges) that enable the holding cell to be anchored to the floor and/or a wall respectively at the location in which it is being installed. In some instances, the use of anchor points may not be required, tor example if the holding cell is bottom heavy enough that it is not possible to be tipped over or moved by an occupant, or if the holding cell is installed into a location that is surrounded by walls or other objects which restrict movement of the holding cell.

Less or more anchor points than shown may be provided.

The holding cell shown in Figure 4 further comprises a ventilation panel 14 that allows fresh air to be circulated into the holding cell while the door is closed. The ventilation panel will typically be formed from a perforated metal construction. In addition, an access panel 15 is provided that enables access to a compartment at the top of the cell that cannot be accessed from within the cell. The compartment can house a number of devices, including but not limited to: a light for the inside of the holding cell, an air-conditioning unit, an intercom system to allow easier communication between the detainee and those outside the holding cell and also a CCTV unit to allow remote monitoring of the holding cell. It is particularly advantageous if the CCTV is concealed, for example behind a two-way reflective panel, such that the use of CCTV does not feel obtrusive to the occupant of the cell.

As the holding cell is formed from a number of sections, if during use, one of the sections is irreparably damaged, it is not necessary for the entire holding cell to be replaced. Instead, the damaged section of the cell can be removed and replaced by a new section at much less cost.

A further advantage of the holding cell described herein is that two or more of them can be installed together to provide a modular holding facility. Each holding cell makes up a module within the facility, and modules can be added and removed as required.

Figure 5a shows a holding cell facility 20 comprising three modules that have been positioned in a line next to each other (i.e. a 3x1 arrangement). The modules within a facility can be secured to each other to provide stability. The modules can be placed in an arrangement that best suits the location into which the facility is installed and also the requirements of the facility. For example, Figure 5b shows the same type of modules used in the facility of Figure 5a, but instead four of them have been positioned in a 2x2 arrangement 21.

Optionally, for holding facilities such as those shown in Figures 5a and Sb, intermediate walls (i.e. a side wall for one holding cell that is positioned adjacent to a further holding cell) could function as the side wall for two adjacent cells. This would help to reduce the overall cost and weight of the facility.

A further advantage of the modular facility is that it is not necessary to anchor each module to a wall and or the floor when installed in a location. For example, Figure 6 shows the facility 20 of Figure 5a installed inside a room 25. It can be seen that the module on the left end of the row has been anchored, respectively by means of flanges 13 and 12, to the wall 27 and floor 26 of the room, and, although it cannot be seen, the module on the right end of the row has also been anchored to the wall and floor. The middle module is secured to the modules at each end of the row, and therefore does not need to be secured to the wall and/or floor as well. This can be particularly beneficial for larger holding facilities with a greater number of modules. For example, for a facility containing 6 modules in a row (a 6x1 arrangement) only the two "outer" modules would normally be anchored, and the 4 modules in between would normally only be secured to the modules on either side.

As the modular holding facility is formed using the previously described holding cells, it can similarly be quickly and easily deployed, broken down and redeployed as required.

It can be installed as a permanent, semi-permanent or temporary solution where there is a need to detain individuals. This may be in an existing space within a building, or could also be in a van or lorry, to provide a mobile holding facility that is capable of being transported quickly to multiple locations to meet fast-changing demand. It could also be installed in an open-air location.

It will be appreciated by the person of skill in the art that various modifications may be made to the above described embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention. In particular, as previously mentioned, the holding cell described herein has been devised with the UK Home Office regulations in mind, but it will be understood that a holding cell may include some modifications in order to pass regulations in other jurisdictions, and that these modifications would not depart from the scope of the present invention. Each teature disclosed or illustrated in the present specification may be incorporated in the invention, whether alone or in any appropriate combination with any other feature disclosed or illustrated herein.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A holding cell for detaining an individual, the holding cell comprising a door and a number of separable parts comprising at least one side wall, wherein the cell is arranged to be installed into an existing space by securing the pads together, and hanging the door.
2. A holding cell as claimed in claim 1, wherein the number of separable parts comprises at least two side walls.
3. A holding cell as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the number of separable parts further comprises one or more of the list comprising: a floor part, a ceiling part and a back wall.
4. A holding cell as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the number of separable parts further comprises a front wall onto which the door is hung, the front wall defining a opening which is arranged to be closed by closing the door.
5. A holding cell as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein one or more of the separable parts comprise means that enable the holding cell to be secured to a wall and/or a floor located at the existing space into which the holding cell is to be installed.
6. A holding cell as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the separable parts are arranged to be secured together by one, or a combination of the list comprising; screws, bolts, rivets, tongue and groove, latches, nails and hooks.
7. A holding cell as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the separable parts are formed of one or a combination of the list comprising metal, wood, plastic and wood shrouded with metal.
8. A holding cell as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein a seat is integrally formed into one of the separable parts.
9. A holding cell as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the cell is arranged to be installed such that when the separable parts of the cell are secured together, the inside of the cell does not contain any ligature points.
10. A holding cell as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the cell is provided with one or more devices of the list comprising: air-conditioning, CCTV, light and intercom.
11. A holding cell as claimed in claim 10, wherein one or more of said devices are concealed.
12. A holding cell as claimed in claim 11 as indirectly dependent on claim 3, wherein the one or more of said devices are concealed in a top panel in a separable ceiling part.
13. A holding cell as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, the holding cell further comprising anti-pick mastic to cover at least one joint between two or more separable parts on the inside of the holding cell.
14. A holding cell as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the door and separable parts of the holding cell are arranged to be flat packed prior to installation.
15. A modular holding facility for detaining individuals, the facility comprising an arrangement of two or more modules, wherein each module comprises a holding cell as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 14.
16. A modular holding facility as claimed in claim 15, the facility further comprising at least one connecting means to fasten two or more modules together.
17. A modular holding facility as claimed in claim 15 or 16, wherein the two or more modules can be arranged in more than one way.
18. A modular holding facility as claimed in any one of claims l5to 17, wherein the modular holding facility is installed in a pre-existing space within a building.
19. A modular holding facility as claimed in any one of claims l5to 17, wherein the modular holding facility is installed in or on a vehicle.