Visiting the prison
Maintaining contact with family members or close friends is an important part of the rehabilitation process and helps to support our prisoners during their sentence.
To find out more about our commitments to children and families, please see our Families and Significant Others Strategy here: Strategy for Strengthening ties with families and significant others 2018.pub (sodexonet.com)
Our large, open-plan visits halls provide a relaxed atmosphere for both prisoners and their visitors. With refreshments available to purchase (card payments ONLY) and play areas for younger children, we want to make your visiting experience as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.
We understand that visiting a prison can be quite daunting, especially if it is your first visit, so we try to make your experience as positive as possible. We want you to enjoy your visit so we operate a zero tolerance for violence and aggressive behaviour to help us maintain a calm, friendly environment.
Children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
Prohibited items
There are certain items that are not allowed in a prison environment. Please take the time to read and familiarise yourself with the list. View the prohibited items list.
We provide lockers for you to store personal belongings such as wallets, mobile phones and tobacco.
Smoke-free site
HMP & YOI Bronzefield is a smoke free site. We therefore do not allow any tobacco, lighters, vapes or other smoking paraphernalia in the visits hall.
Visiting times and frequency
Details about visiting times allowed at HMP & YOI Bronzefield.
Visit Times
From 19th June 2023
Monday |
1400 – 1500 |
1600 - 1700 |
|
Tuesday |
1400 - 1600 |
1700 – 1800 |
|
Wednesday |
1400 – 1600 |
1700 – 1800 |
|
Thursday |
1400 – 1500 |
1600 – 1800 |
|
Friday |
1400 - 1600 |
|
|
Saturday |
0930 – 1145 |
1400 – 1500 |
1600 – 1700 |
Sunday |
0930 - 1145 |
1400 - 1500 |
1600 - 1700 |
Remand prisoners can have hourly visits on all the days that we are open.
Sentenced prisoners can have 4 visits per month, 5 per month if on a Gold regime.
What to expect
Guidelines of what to expect when visiting HMP & YOI Bronzefield prison.
When visiting, make sure you bring photo ID with you and proof of your address, such as a utility bill (gas, electricity, water, council tax etc.) or a bank or building society statement. These must be less than three months old.
Accepted forms of photo ID are:
- Driving licence (photo card)
- Valid passport
- Citizenship card
- Bus pass
- Blue Badge with photo
If you do not have photo ID you should bring either your birth certificate plus two utility bills or bank/building society statements. Or you can bring three utility bills/bank or building society statements – each must be from a different organisation.
Car parking
Visitors' parking is provided free of charge. If the visitors' car park is full, please use the overflow car park at the top of the drive. Please do not park along the drive as this can be a safety risk for cars and pedestrians.
Check-in to our visitors centre
When you arrive you will need to check-in to our visitors centre which is the small building on the right before you reach the prison. You will be welcomed by a member of our team who will check your name against the list of visitors and check your ID. Here you can wait until your visit time.
The Centre opens 45 minutes prior to the start of visits – please arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the start of your visit.
There’s a soft play area for little ones and a small kiosk to get a drink (similar to inside the prison, this is card payments only). It’s best to use the toilet facilities here before you go into the visits hall.
You will be directed to the main prison building where our visits hall is based. Here you can hand in any property that you have brought with you for the person you are visiting.
Refreshments
We are pleased that visitors can now buy hot and cold snacks and drinks in the Vita Nova Visits Coffee Shop. Please remember card only payments.
Lockers
You can use a locker to leave your personal belongings such as, such as keys, mobile phones, cigarettes, tobacco, lighters etc.
Within the Visits Hall there is a tea bar operated by the Vita Nova Visits Coffee Shop. Please remember card only payments. There are also toilet, baby changing and wash facilities available.
Security
When it is time to go through for your visit, you will pass through an airport-style security.
Any bags will be passed through a scanner and you will walk through a metal detector.
You’ll also need to agree to a ‘level A’ rub down search. Official visitors are required to agree to a ‘level B’ rub down search.
If you refuse to be searched, you will not be allowed to enter the prison. Please be advised that we have a drug detecting machine which, if proven positive, will determine whether your visit continues and if it continues under closed conditions.
Once you’ve passed through security, you’ll then go through our airlock door system before entering the visits hall.
Dress Code for Visitors
HMP YOI Bronzefield operates a family orientated visits policy. Many of our visitors are accompanied by children, so we want to have a decent, safe and relaxed family environment for all our visitors.
The following items of clothing should not be worn:
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Hats, scarves or head coverings which are not worn on religious grounds
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Jackets or coats, hoodies or gloves
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Inappropriately damaged clothing
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Metal hair accessories
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Steel toe capped shoes/boots or cycle/ motorcycle shoes
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Non-prescription glasses i.e. sunglasses
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See-through / revealing clothing
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Ripped Jeans
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Items of clothing that display offensive abusive or insulting words or gestures
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Mini or very short skirts/dresses unless worn with leggings
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Shorts which are shorter than mid-thigh to knee length
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Visible or exposed underwear
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Smart watches
This list is not exhaustive.
Prison staff will make decisions and judgements on whether clothing is inappropriate. When making these decisions, staff will always consider decency and diversity. You may be asked to adjust clothing or wear alternative clothing if available. As a last resort your visit may be cancelled if the dress code cannot be followed.
Types of visit
Details about the social (friends and family), Purple Visits and legal allowed at HMP & YOI Bronzefield.
Face to Face Legal Visits:
Monday to Friday – 09.00am to 11.00am in the Visits Hall
Booking email address – BF.FacetoFaceLegalVisits@sodexogov.co.uk
Virtual Legal Visits (Video Link):
Monday to Thursday – 08.00am to 18.00pm
Fridays – 08.00am to 17.00pm
Booking email address – bf.videolink@sodexogov.co.uk
Social Visits:
Social visits are booked by the prisoners using our Internal Pods system. Prisoners are shown how to use this on their induction (normally within the first 3 days). They need to register all their visitors details and then request a visit. This can take a few days. Unfortunately due to data protection we are unable to book any social visits for anyone calling in.
We have a Tea Bar in the Visits Hall where you can purchase hot drinks and snacks. Please be advised we can only accept payment via a credit card (cannot accept cash).
Monday |
1400 – 1500 |
1600 - 1700 |
|
Tuesday |
1400 - 1600 |
1700 – 1800 |
|
Wednesday |
1400 – 1600 |
1700 – 1800 |
|
Thursday |
1400 – 1500 |
1600 – 1800 |
|
Friday |
1400 - 1600 |
|
|
Saturday |
0930 – 1145 |
1400 – 1500 |
1600 – 1700 |
Sunday |
0930 - 1145 |
1400 - 1500 |
1600 - 1700 |
Please note that social visits are booked by the prisoner
Purple Visits (Virtual Visits) are also available from 09.00am to 18.00pm Monday to Thursdays and 09.00am to 17.00pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
If you would like to book one please download the application to your mobile device/tablet via the apple app store or google play and follow the instructions. Or visit https://www.purplevisits.com/
If you can only visit outside of these hours, please contact the Visits department and we will do our best to accommodate the visit.
Please download and complete a VideoLink Booking Form
please note: these departments will not be able to give out any prisoner information
How we collect and use your data
COLLECTION OF DATA
In order to facilitate your visit to one of our prisons and to ensure that we deliver appropriate levels of security and safety and prevent crime, for identification purposes we shall collect your name, date of birth, address, a biometric template of your fingerprint and a photograph. A series of reference points from a finger print are collected, allowing a unique identification pattern. We do not collect or hold actual fingerprints.
Our prisons operate CCTV and staff may wear Body Worn Video Recording Equipment. We do not collect biometric readings or photographs of children under 16, however with the use of CCTV, images may routinely be captured.
DATA SHARING
We will only share your information with a third party where there is a legal obligation to do so.
RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE AND RESTRICTION
You have legal rights in connection with personal information. Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
- Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
- Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing.
- Object to processing of your personal information by us or on our behalf in certain situations.
- Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
DATA RETENTION
We keep personal data in accordance with our clients’ and Sodexo’s retention procedures. These retention periods depend on the nature of the information (e.g. we apply different retention periods to different type of information such as CCTV and your visitor record), and may be subject to change.
If you have any questions or concerns about how long we retain your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer using the details below.
FURTHER ADVICE / GUIDANCE
To exercise your rights, you can contact us by writing to us at the following address: dataprotection.ukandie@sodexo.com or email the Global Data Protection Office at the following email address: dpo.group@sodexo.com stating your surname, first name and the reason for your request. We will most likely ask you for additional information in order to identify you and to enable us to deal with your request
You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office and file a complaint. (https://ico.org.uk/concerns/)