This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Future of Scottish prisons
05/09/2002
The largest ever investment in Scotland's publicly run
prisons has been announced.
Justice Minister Jim Wallace told the Scottish
Parliament that over the next three years £110 million will
be spent on prisons including those at Edinburgh, Polmont,
Glenochil, Perth and Barlinnie.
The plans also include a modernisation programme
providing 2500 new and refurbished prisoner places, many of
which will replace outdated cells and houseblocks.
The modernisation plans include:
- A £110 million package to allow for immediate
investment in prisons including HMP Barlinnie, HMP
Perth, HMP Edinburgh, HMP Glenochil, HMP Polmont and
create 1100 new or refurbished prison places
- The freeing up of one prison worth of places 700
places through alternatives to custody and a commitment
to explore more radical methods to free up more places
in the future
- Two new prisons to be built in the central belt
creating a further 1400 prison places
Greater accountability in the running of all
Scottish prisons - The ending of slopping out one year after the
second new prison opens
- The closure of HMP Low Moss and retention of HMP
Peterhead
- The preparation of proposals for comprehensive sex
offenders programmes across Scotland
The Minister announced that he was proceeding with
immediate effect to procure a private prison in central
Scotland to address the rising prisoner population.
He said that there was a particular problem with the
number of remand prisoners and this new prison will be
intended to respond to the current rapid rise in remand
numbers.
Jim Wallace told MSPs that there was also a need for
second new prison and he announced that he was prepared to
build this prison in the public sector if the unions and
the SPS could come up with a robust and credible plan that
offered value for money.
He described this as his challenge to the public sector
and called on them to bridge the gap with the private
sector.
These plans will create 1100 new or refurbished prison
places in the public sector, 700 new places in the private
sector and a further 700 places from the second new
prison.
The Minister also announced that he would free up
another prison worth of places through the expansion of
alternatives to custody.
Jim Wallace said that Ministers had faced up to hard
facts and hard choices in arriving at these decisions but
had also reflected very carefully on all the points raised
during the consultation process.
The Minister also announced that the Executive would
proceed with plans to close HMP Low Moss but would not
proceed with the closure of HMP Peterhead.
Extracts from Jim Wallaces statement to the Scottish
Parliament:
"Presiding Officer, Scotland needs prisons fit for the
21st century. We consulted on proposals to achieve that
goal. We have listened to what people said and considered
the issues carefully. I now set out our plans to modernise
Scotlands prison system.
"It is possible because we faced up to hard facts and
hard choices during the Estates Review. It has not been a
time for wishful thinking or political opportunism.
"Where public safety or the seriousness of the offence
demands a prison sentence, the prison place must be there.
But sometimes people go to prison for the lack of a better
alternative.
We are committed to providing the right mix of custodial
and non-custodial sentences for the courts to use.
"We will go further still. I am looking at extending the
use of Supervised Attendance Orders, which I believe offer
the scope to end the use of imprisonment for fine
default.
"This further progress should reduce the projected
prisoner population by 700 places that is a prison's worth
of alternatives to custody. I shall also look closely at
other proposals to offer the courts a more flexible mix of
custodial and non custodial disposals.
"The Chief Inspector of Prisons has drawn attention to
the focus and clarity brought by contract management for
private prisons and has called on SPS to introduce similar
measures in the public sector. I have instructed SPS to
bring forward proposals to achieve that. I expect that to
result in published performance agreements for publicly run
prisons and full reporting of performance against those
targets.
"I want to see our existing prisons transformed. We have
set SPS the challenge of saving pounds 12.5 million out of
current expenditure, and it is succeeding in doing so.
Today, in advance of our announcement of the outcome of the
spending review, I confirm that every penny of those
savings will go into investment in publicly run
prisons.
"Furthermore, I confirm that we will roll forward SPSs
existing capital investment programme for the next three
years. And we will top that up with new money in the
spending review. The result will be a Prison Modernisation
Fund of over pounds 110 million for the next three years.
"That is a massive investment in publicly run
prisons, more than ever before. The Modernisation Fund will
be used to back the implementation of development plans,
starting at Edinburgh, Perth, Polmont and Glenochil. These
plans draw on the best of modern prison design and set out
to recreate it in our existing prison estate.
"I hope we will be able to go on from there to all other
publicly run prisons. We will also, as we proposed in the
Estates Review, continue the work now under way at
Barlinnie to create a fully modernised 530 place
prison.
"Our investment in publicly run prisons will transform
the existing prison estate. We cannot, however, create
enough spaces in existing prisons to respond to current
levels of overcrowding and likely future growth. Prisoner
numbers are at record levels and are set to go higher still
over the next few years.
"Remand numbers in particular have seen a step change:
the remand population is 28 per cent higher now than it was
in the same period last year.
"We have decided to respond to that growth with two new
700 place prisons. These will be on sites in central
Scotland which SPS will identify in consultation with local
authorities and others. I emphasise that a number of sites
are still under consideration and that no decisions have
been taken.
"In tendering for this prison, we will also seek
innovative proposals to provide care and opportunities for
those on remand, including needs assessment and
detoxification services. Innovative proposals might also
feature an appropriate role for voluntary and charitable
non-profit organisations.
"The second new prison is my challenge to the public
sector. I want SPS and the trades unions to have the chance
to show that they can bridge the gap between the private
and the public sector on competitiveness.
"If they can produce for me a robust and credible plan
for the second new prison, one which is competitive, offers
value for money and delivers the places we need on time, I
am prepared to take that project forward in the public
sector or as a privately built, publicly operated prison. I
repeat that I will have to be satisfied that the proposal
offers value for money to the taxpayer, is affordable and
that it will deliver.
"I now turn to the question of how we protect our
communities by managing sex offenders. The debate has
focused on Peterhead, but the issue goes much wider.
Peterhead houses some 300 sex offenders. As many again are
in other prisons. I am publishing today the report of an
independent expert group of psychologists and
psychiatrists, including specialists from Peterhead, led by
Alec Spencer of SPS.
"The focus of our efforts will now move on to proposals
for comprehensive sex offenders programmes across the
prison estate integrating existing work with long-term
offenders with that for short-term prisoners and young
offenders.
"We will welcome comments on the Spencer Group report
before the end of the year. Thereafter, SPS will hold
discussions with partner agencies and further proposals
will be brought forward for the next Parliament.
"On Peterhead itself, we have listened to the
consultation responses. We have heard suggestions on how we
might improve access to night sanitation. We have also
heard from the families of offenders that some prefer to
visit a prison where there are only sex offenders.
"We have always recognised the work of staff at
Peterhead as world class. We have always pledged that their
work and the ethos they have created will be protected.
Since our priority is to develop wider sex offender
programmes, now is not the time to move the long-term
programmes from Peterhead.
"Peterhead will therefore remain open and will continue
to be the main centre for long term sex offenders. SPS will
invest to improve the existing accommodation, by installing
electric power in cells, and is discussing the offer by the
POAS relating to prisoner access to night sanitation.
"These measures meet the objectives we set in the
Estates Review. They show we have listened. They are backed
by our commitment to the principles of openness and
democratic accountability which underpinned the creation of
this Parliament itself.
"This programme of modernisation sets us on the path to
ending slopping out, as the Parliament has long called on
us to do. These measures are about more than buildings.
They are a necessary further step in our work to modernise
and reform SPS and sharpen its focus on correctional
excellence.
"They have not been easy to shape, but I believe they
have benefited from the scrutiny which the Parliament is
here to provide. In that spirit, I commend them to the
Parliament."