New Leicestershire superjail windows to ‘eliminate opportunity for inmates to receive contraband by drone’

A controversial new super-prison being built in Leicestershire will have non-opening windows to “stop potential drone delivery of contraband directly to inmates from their bedroom”. The windows will also “reduce noise” and “eliminate the opportunity for residents to remove contraband,” allowing for “easier” detection of prohibited items by staff.

Windows from neighboring houses will also be hidden to protect the privacy of the householders. Details have been revealed in new plans for the layout and design of the prison, to be built on Welland Avenue, Gartree, Lubenham, which were approved at Harborough District Council’s (HDC) planning committee meeting on Tuesday 11 June.

The documents showed that the fixed windows would also prevent inmates from throwing “food scraps and other waste directly out the window”, “thereby reducing the potential for waste-related pest problems”. Other details in the plans, submitted by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), include that there would be 14 buildings in the main prison complex and that the distance from the buildings to the nearest house in Welland Avenue would be 111 metres, with the opening open. space and a safe fence between them.

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The original plan for the huge prison, capable of housing 1,700 inmates, was unanimously rejected by Harborough Borough Planning Committee in April 2022. However, following an appeal by the Ministry of Justice against the decision in June 2022, the scheme was granted approval. by Secretary of State for Housing, Housing and Communities Michael Gove.

HDC said MJ should start work on site later this year.