As part of UK Government Major Projects Portfolio, HMPPS commissioned a £52m In-Cell Technology Programme to install 15,000 laptops into prison cells and 300 kiosks across 15 sites onto prison wings.- Completed in Autumn 2022, this project took place during the Covid pandemic.
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Responsible for the programme’s project management, Triad supervised the migration of two prisons to new systems, whilst managing the installation of technology and hardware to 13 new sites, including women’s prisons and young offender institutions. - 2Across software and hardware, we were responsible for project management, buildout, testing and analysing.
- 3Across all sites, we managed the infrastructure, with Wi-Fi providing access to an internal content hub and Unilink transactional services.
- 4Working on four sites in parallel, we overcame frequent lockdowns and site-specific restrictions, to streamline the schedule and complete on time.
- Prisoners now have access to digital transactional services. They can complete administrative tasks, replacing time and resource intensive paper-based services.
- Overall safety and security, plus prisoner wellbeing and digital literacy, have improved, while interaction between prisoners and staff are now focused on more important matters.
- Wing officers and administrative staff are reporting time savings of between 2 and 3.5 hours a week each.
- This project’s success means funding has already been approved for phase 3 of the programme to continue to roll out in-cell technology to a new set of UK prisons.
Their story
And yet the UK is a digital world. This makes rehabilitation harder as ex-offenders struggle with the reality of our digital society.
Technology has helped prisoners access services such as basic shopping, organising family visits and arranging activities in a controlled and restricted way. They can also communicate with family, providing an incentive to reduce reoffending.
Staff no longer distribute email printouts or drop off and collect paper order forms for daily processes such as food and personal supply orders. This has created time savings for staff, increased staff satisfaction and seen staff relationships with prisoners improve.
Constantly tested by the prison environment and the Covid pandemic, they balanced personal security with project deadlines whilst navigating prison rules and regulations.
Triad created a support and operating model that can now be scaled across all publicly operated prisons in England and Wales.
Triad and HMPPS won “Digital Transformation Project of the Year” for the project management of this programme at the 2023 BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards.
