Castle Huntly Prison
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to the Scottish Parliament
May 27, 2009
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Presiding Officer, I would like to take this opportunity to address parliament on a matter which I know is the cause of considerable public concern, namely the abscond of Brian Martin from Castle Huntly open prison on 18 May 2009.
I am pleased to confirm to parliament that Mr Martin has been returned to custody and appeared in court at Perth yesterday to face charges of being unlawfully at large, receiving an additional 4 month sentence.
Martin absconded from Castle Huntly open prison on Monday 18 May 2009. He had been transferred to the open estate on 27 April and had not yet had community access approved. Martin is serving a sentence of 10 years and has a parole qualification in September 2010. Prior to being transferred to the open estate he was located in HMP Shotts.
Last year I confirmed to parliament that I had instructed SPS that when an individual absconds from open conditions there would be a presumption against that individual returning to open prison and that any decision to the contrary would have to be authorised directly by a senior member of staff in SPS headquarters within the prisons directorate. These changes and tighter criteria have resulted in a significant - indeed a record - decline in absconds.
The final decision and responsibility for the transfer to open conditions rests with the prison governor. As I have said, however, when there is a history of previous absconding this should be referred to SPS headquarters.
As a result of Brian Martin's absconding, I wrote to the SPS on the morning of 21 May and asked them to review the circumstances surrounding his transfer to Castle Huntly. I was advised by SPS this Monday, the same day Martin was returned to custody, that he had absconded previously, albeit 22 years ago. The SPS has apologised to me for what appears to have been a failure in their information sharing processes.
The SPS has already instructed a senior governor from another prison to carry out an internal review into the circumstances surrounding the transfer of Martin.
However, I believe it is essential that the process we have in place is as robust as it possibly can be. With that in mind, Professor Alec Spencer, formerly governor of Peterhead, Glenochil and Saughton prisons, has agreed to conduct an independent review of the circumstances surrounding this transfer. Professor Spencer has the practical experience of dealing with some of Scotland's most hardened criminals, as well as being a respected academic and widely acknowledged expert on prison matters.
As I have said, tighter criteria for the transfer to the open prison estate were introduced last summer. What I have asked Professor Spencer to do is conduct an independent review of the decision to send this prisoner to open conditions, and in light of that to consider whether the new criteria for transfer to the open estate are being properly applied in all cases.
It would appear that the process I put in place following the Foye case last year was not in this instance properly followed by staff within the SPS. This is not a situation which I or indeed any of us will find acceptable. If the process had been properly followed, the likelihood is that Martin would not have been transferred to the open estate.
Since the introduction of the new criteria post Foye we have seen the smallest ever number of absconds from the open estate. In 1993 there were 95 absconds. In 2006-07 there were 79 absconds. In 2008-09 there were 16 absconds, and I am happy to place the figures in Spice today.
I have said previously that one abscond is one too many, and I still believe that to be the case. Yet as long as we have an open prison estate there will be occasions when individuals betray the trust shown in them by absconding. What we have to do is to make sure that the processes we put in place are as robust as they can be.
There is a general consensus across the parliament and beyond that the open estate plays a valuable role in preparing long term prisoners for eventual release. Henry Mcleish said in his report that "Scotland also needs a well run open estate because it is not in the public interest to release long term prisoners from closed institutions without preparing them for release and training them for freedom".
The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Andrew Mclellan, in January this year said "the criteria for admission to the open estate have been tightened considerably.
It would be wrong for me, or any of us, to prejudge Professor Spencer's findings. However, if he confirms there has been a significant failure of process in this instance, then i would expect the SPS to address that failure. Given that this may include disciplinary action, it is appropriate that we await Professor Spencer's findings before drawing any further conclusions on this point.
I have asked Professor Spencer to submit his report to me by the end of this parliamentary session. I intend to publish that report and will meet with the chief executive and senior management of the SPS to review the findings of this inquiry and to agree with them whatever actions may be necessary.
This government has gone further than ever before in ensuring the most robust safeguards possible are applied when it comes to transferring prisoners to the open estate, and the measures i have outlined today will ensure those safeguards are subject to even closer scrutiny.