aldington | open prison
23|10|05

Our interest was piqued by the heavily guarded and fortified building to the west of the site, adjacent to the main entrance. So we made our way across the prison, though overgrown areas and darkened corridors.





It turned out to be the visitor’s centre, a building dominated by this visiting room.





In addition to the increased security outside this building, this one-way mirror provided excellent observation of the visiting room by prison staff. This is a shot from the prison warders' side...



And here's the same mirror from the prisoner's side.



There was a booth in the corner of the room allowing a prisoner and their visitor the ability to talk to each other, but little else.





In the corner of the room was a children's play area, the colourful cartoon characters utterly failing to brighten up a miserable corner of a miserable room. A 'wacky' professor type character, in an attempt to teach basic geometry and spelling, managed to spell 'square' incorrectly. The later correction just made the whole thing more depressing.