Between the closure of the Young Offenders Institution at Reading Prison and the opening of the ArtAngel exhibition, nothing was changed in the building. To the extend that graffiti and bits of blu-tac and posters on the cell walls remained there.
I’m a little perplexed by the scrawl on the bottom picture, 9 years from 2013 isn’t 2017 and the individual will have been transferred relatively shortly after this was written when the prison closed in 2013.
The cells are all laid out the same way, some with two bunks others with a single one. Behind the white low partition is a steel toilet.
They are all lit by a single fluorescent tube in the ceiling.
The views out of the windows vary though. This particular cell looks out onto the office building I used to work in.
Along the corridor, each door is the same, flanked by a space where information can be placed about the person in the cell. During the ArtAngel exhibit, those spaces were used to display information about the art displayed in the open cell.
Occasionally the staff will be reminded by signs on the doors that the doors need to remain locked!
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