I never speak about this much but feel it’s the right time to open up and let the world know about my time in prison. The first time a steel door closed behind me, it was followed by a second, then a third. Keys clinked, radios crackled, and the air felt just a bit colder. I remember walking into the kitchen area for the first time to be greeted with 2 of the biggest Māori’s I’ve ever seen, both of them with faces covered in tattoos. “What the f@$# do you want!” one screamed at me the moment he saw me. Luckily, I wasn’t in an orange jumpsuit—I was in hi-vis with an iPad, and my guard soon jumped in to put him back in place. Over the years I’ve been inside numerous prisons across Australia and New Zealand, from intake blocks to high-security wings to mental health units. My job? Build crystal-clear asset registers and lifecycle plans so the right parts get maintained, upgraded, and funded—before anything fails.

It’s not a typical office. But it might be the best place on earth to learn why accurate asset data matters. 

Prisons are small cities with zero tolerance for downtime 

A correctional facility is a 24/7 ecosystem. Power, water, HVAC, fire safety, security electronics, kitchens, laundries, medical, workshops, education spaces—each system touches the next. If a chiller underperforms, temperatures rise, medication stores are at risk, tempers can rise too. If a gate motor fails, movement stops. If a door closer is off by a few millimetres, a space no longer meets safety protocols. “We’ll fix it next week” is not an option.

Behind every “open/close” moment are hundreds of assets that have to be known, tracked, and planned for—down to the model, serial, location, criticality, and remaining life. That’s where my team and I live. 

The mental health wing will change how you think about HVAC 

People often assume security hardware is the star of the show. It matters, of course—locks, hinges, cameras, perimeter systems—but the quiet heroes are things like air handling, lighting, and anti-ligature fixtures. In mental health units, air quality is a safety system. Good airflow, stable temperature, and calm lighting can de-escalate a situation before it starts.

When we catalogue assets there, we’re not just inventorying “a fan coil unit”. We capture refrigerant type and volume, filtration classes, operating hours, and maintenance cycles. That asset data feeds a lifecycle model that answers: when will this unit likely fail, what will it cost to replace, and what is the risk if we push it one more year? In this environment, that’s not a spreadsheet exercise—it’s a duty of care. 

High security teaches you to love detail 

There’s nothing like the high-security wing to cure any “near enough is good enough” instincts. Exact location matters—this cell door, that control panel. Photos matter—today’s condition, not last year’s memory. Standardised naming matters—so a new facilities manager can find “HVAC > Air Conditioning > Chiller 2” without a scavenger hunt. And metadata matters—manufacturer, capacity, warranty, last service, component dependencies.

We’ve walked service tunnels, climbed plant decks, squeezed behind racks, and mapped everything from UPS banks to steam traps. The takeaway is always the same: you only control what you can see—and you only see what you record. 

Four things prison work taught me about asset data anywhere 

Doors are systems, not slabs. A “door” is a set of components: leaf, frame, closer, hinges, seals, strike, hardware, sensors. One weak part and the whole function fails. Treat your assets as systems and your maintenance plans will stop being expensive whack-a-mole. 

Redundancy isn’t waste; it’s design. Generators, pumps, and chillers often have N+1 (industry jargon for the number of units you need plus 1 extra for standby) or more. Your lifecycle model must reflect redundancy logic, or you’ll underfund the spares that keep your uptime sacred. 

Condition ≠ age. We’ve seen ten-year-old plant in better shape than five-year-old equivalents because usage patterns and servicing were different. Always pair age with condition, utilisation, and environment. 

Photos and plain English beat folklore. Turnover happens. When the veteran tech retires, your “tribal knowledge” walks out the door unless you’ve captured it in photos, notes, and consistent naming. 

From clipboards to clarity 

Years ago, asset capture meant pen, paper, and a strained memory. Today, we walk in with a digital framework: standard categories and types, streamlined attributes, photo capture, geo-location, and QR and Barcoding that make sure nothing is missed. Every asset gets a profile. Every profile feeds the lifecycle engine. And the lifecycle engine turns into practical answers: 

• What should we replace next year—and why? 

• What’s the budget for the next five years, not just this one? 

• Which assets carry the highest operational risk? 

• What can be extended safely with targeted maintenance, and what can’t? 

Respect, always 

Spending time in prisons changes you. You see people doing difficult work with professionalism and care. You learn that strong systems can lower stress for everyone—officers, healthcare staff, educators, maintenance teams, and the people in their custody. You also learn to be careful with details I won’t share: locations, layouts, and procedures stay inside the fence for good reason. Our role is to help the right people make the right decisions at the right time—quietly and accurately. 

Why this matters outside the wire 

You don’t need razor wire to feel the pressure of uptime. Hospitals, data centres, airports, aged care, universities, logistics hubs—any site with complex interdependent systems benefits from the same discipline: a live, accurate, and complete asset register that powers lifecycle planning.

When your data is reliable, three things happen: 

1. You buy time. Early warnings and targeted maintenance push failures out of the calendar. 

1. You buy certainty. Budgets stop jumping around because you can forecast spend at an asset level. 

1. You buy calm. Teams know what’s coming and why, which means fewer 2am emergencies. 

A coffee-worthy close 

So yes, I’ve been to prison more than a dozen times. I’ve stood in sally ports, listened to doors lock in sequence, and walked plant rooms that never sleep. And every visit reinforced the same simple truth: when the stakes are high, accurate asset data isn’t “nice to have”—it’s the difference between control and chaos.

If this prison reflection nudged you to look at your own asset data with fresh eyes, good. Start with the basics: know what you have, where it is, what state it’s in, and what it will take to keep it performing. Do that well, and the rest—budgets, risk, compliance, and calmer days—begins to fall into place. 

P.S. If you want your asset register to be prison-grade accurate (without the prison), I’m always up for a chat over coffee.