HMP Holme House offers a variety of employment training opportunities to prisoners in its modern workshop complex, which consists of ten individual work/training areas and offers up to 206 full time prisoner places.
The Woodmill within the complex specialises in the production of hardwood furniture, but last year production was often interrupted due to pressure drops within the compressed air system.
Thorite's engineers proposed a 2 stage remedy. The first was to replace the Woodmill's pipework to eradicate expensive compressed air leaks and this was carried out successfully late last year. As the existing compressor was known to be struggling to cope when powering the beam saws, lathes and planers in the Woodmill the second part of the fix has now been carried out, with the installation of a rugged yet energy-efficient new HPC model SK22T compressor.
Brian McGarry is the prison's Industries Manager and is impressed with the solutions Thorite has provided, saying: "We've been very pleased with both the standards of service and the excellent work that has gone in to this project. Working in prisons can be difficult, as security obviously has to be our number one priority and it is surprising how often contractors can turn up without proper identification or proof of identity. Thorite handled the whole installation in a very professional manner, always came when they said they would and generally carried out a faultless job".
HMP Holme House opened in 1992 and is a large local prison holding male prisoners aged 18 years and over. The prison's capacity is 1210 and the population is mainly comprised of longer-sentenced determinate prisoners, with a substantial number of remand prisoners. The prison primarily serves the communities of Tees Valley, South West Durham, East Durham and North Yorkshire.