Prison Security Upgrade for Dame Phyllis Frost Centre

The Challenge
SNP Security was contracted by the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a prison for women, to remove the existing access control equipment and recording CCTV systems and replace with a state-of-the-art security solution. The project had to be operationally seamless. As part of the plan, the control room had to be relocated to another area while the existing one was refurbished with no impact to the level of the security for the site. The Dame Phyllis Frost Centre has a capacity of 260 prisoners and had to remain fully functional and highly secure at all times throughout the upgrade.

The Solution
The first step was to plan the migration from one system to the other. SNP Security provided a technical draftsperson on site to liaise with the client and produce drawings and layouts for all system graphs. A specialised installation team was assembled including a project manager, installation supervisor and the install team who collaborated closely with the client in developing a strategic plan for implementation of the upgrade and changeover. A quality assurance control process was developed with on-site prison authorities to deal with any potential areas that could have been compromised, and ensuring all contingencies were met during the changeover.

Each step of the upgrade/installation was individually documented and a process created for it. This was then given approval by the client before the work was carried out by the installation team. A spreadsheet was then used to document the series of quality checks that were carried out confirming each step was installed correctly and operational. Each of the process checks were reviewed and confirmed as operational by both the installation supervisor and the project manager.

The Result
SNP Security guaranteed form the start that at no time would security be compromised during the project. The reliability of the system, attention to detail and the innovative approach taken in the project planning directly resulted in an instant improvement from an operational perspective, as well as a marked increase in the overall reliability of the systems both on an individual level and as a total system. The facilities now comply with all the requirements set out by the Department of Corrections.