How Digital Twins Are Shaping Safer, Smarter Correctional Facilities

Building Safety Through Insight: How Digital Twins Are Supporting Smarter Correctional Environments

Correctional facilities are among the most demanding environments to manage. They must provide security without compromising humanity, resilience without excess cost and continuity of service in the face of constant strain. Across the UK and internationally, correctional facilities are contending with rising populations, ageing estates and mounting pressure on staff. In Britain alone, the prison population is projected to reach around 96,000 by 2026, against a current capacity of roughly 78,000, while the existing estate carries a maintenance backlog of more than £1 billion. When added to the mental health impacts of pandemic restrictions, growing energy costs and heightened security risks, the result is a system that has little room for inefficiency.

Governments and regulators have long sought to improve standards. The Ministry of Justice and HM Inspectorate of Prisons set out detailed expectations for safety, yet achieving these goals is challenging when day-to-day operations are governed by outdated infrastructure, siloed data and overstretched staff. In response, a wave of digital initiatives has begun to reshape the justice system. In-cell self-service technology is enabling prisoners to manage requests more independently, with the MyProbation app trialling new ways for inmates to engage with supervision, and data analytics tools are being deployed to flag risks like self-harm before they escalate. These changes reflect a growing recognition that digital tools can make the system more proactive and personalised.

Digital Twins: From Concept to Practical Tool

Within this wider transformation, digital twin technology represents a particularly promising step. A digital twin integrates data from sensors, building models and operational systems to give a complete picture of a facility’s performance. This allows teams to anticipate issues, optimise resources and make smarter decisions across all areas of operations. Staff can now see the entire facility in real time, detect emerging problems and take action to prevent disruption.

Early Warnings and Operational Intelligence

The practical benefits of digital twins are wide-ranging. A heating failure in winter or a water leak in a secure block can quickly destabilise correctional facilities, but a digital twin can highlight the warning signs long before the point of crisis. By monitoring patterns of wear, unusual energy use, or pressure changes, facilities teams receive early warnings of potential faults and can address issues before they escalate. This not only reduces downtime and costs but also strengthens safety by minimising unexpected disruption.

Energy use, another significant burden across the estate, can be mapped and analysed in granular detail, enabling facilities to optimise HVAC zones, adjust lighting schedules, or invest in upgrades based on performance rather than guesswork. For project teams planning refurbishments or new construction, a digital twin offers accurate, up-to-date information that reduces uncertainty and helps ensure upgrades are carried out safely and efficiently. Platforms such as Twinview bring these insights together in one place, ensuring that information is not only accurate but actionable for decision-makers under pressure.

Beyond Building Management: Integrating Operational Intelligence

The potential of digital twins extends beyond traditional building management. By integrating surveillance and operational data within the digital twin, teams can identify and act on patterns that were previously invisible. For example, visualising CCTV coverage within the twin can reveal security blind spots, while mapping maintenance reports can highlight recurring hotspots.

These insights also extend to inmate wellbeing: understanding how physical space influences movement, noise, or temperature can help improve design and operational planning. The focus is on bringing together visual, sensor and operational data in one intelligent platform to support continuous improvement.

In this way, Twinview acts as the digital backbone of a connected justice estate by linking BIM, IoT and operational data to create a living, learning environment that supports safer and smarter decisions every day.

Looking Ahead

Digital twins offer correctional facilities a way to become more proactive, resilient and humane. They allow managers to spot potential failures before they escalate, see their estate as a cohesive whole and plan confidently for the future.

Platforms like Twinview are already showing what’s possible: connecting BIM, IoT and CAFM data in a single view to support proactive maintenance, energy management and long-term asset planning. In an environment where every decision matters, Twinview can turn insight into action by building the resilience correctional facilities need for the future.