The UK government has announced that the country's first "smart prison" will open in 2025, according to the Daily Mail. Construction will begin in the autumn in Yorkshire at a cost of £400 million - the most expensive British prison.
The new facility will be fully designed "using the latest smart technology to reduce crime and protect the public." Innovations include embedded electronic devices in cameras, including laptops and tablets. The use of electronic devices in UK correctional facilities is not new: the practice is already in place in about 10 prisons. But in the new prison, all tablets and laptops will be connected to a secure prison intranet that Google is helping to develop. This means that prisoners will not be able to have unsupervised access to the Internet, but they will be able to make an appointment with a prison doctor via a computer, apply for library books, find information about finding housing or work after release, etc. More than 20 online seminars will be available to prisoners, including coding courses, as well as workshops and classes, so as not to waste time behind bars in vain.
The prison will be zero carbon. Solar panels, heat pumps, energy-saving lighting - all this will help reduce energy consumption. Charging points for electric vehicles for staff and visitors will be built around the prison car park. The cells here will be referred to as "rooms" and the prisoners as "tenants" to help with their rehabilitation. By the way, the windows in the “rooms” will be glazed, not barred, so that drones cannot illegally deliver drugs, phones and weapons.
The "intellectual" prison will be built directly opposite another penitentiary institution - a maximum security prison, which contains dangerous criminals. But the new prison will be for those who have committed less serious crimes. In such institutions, prisoners can develop their skills in order to find work and return to society upon release.