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1. PREAMBLE
1.1 Slopping out has now ended in Perth. The chair of the Visiting Committee described it as "a milestone". Last year's inspection report called the conditions in 'C' Hall "dreadful". It is very good that this Report is able to acknowledge that slopping out ended on 10 June 2005. It is also good to recognise that for some months before that those prisoners who were still slopping out were not sharing cells.
1.2 People who do not know prisons well sometimes find it difficult to understand why slopping out is not ended overnight. The answer is, in part at least, to do with overcrowding in prisons: there simply is no room to move prisoners out of "slopping out cells". While the process of ending slopping out at Perth has been complicated in terms of moving prisoners around, this report recognises the determination and energy which the prison has put into the project; and recognises that this achievement has been well managed.
1.3 Nevertheless, some prisoners are still living in very poor conditions. Some cells, particularly in 'A' and 'E' Halls, need decoration very badly. Some cells have little furniture, and what furniture there is is often broken. Mattresses are old and thin and often do not look clean. In these poor conditions there can be three prisoners sharing one cell. The doubling up of prisoners on the scale it is found at Perth is, certainly in part, a consequence of emptying 'C' Hall to end slopping out. Not attributable to this, but still constituting poor conditions, is the practice of keeping six prisoners living together in a bleak dormitory room in 'E' Hall.
1.4 Another consequence of the welcome ending of slopping out by the closure of 'C' Hall is that over one hundred short-term prisoners who would normally be held in HMP Perth are now held at HMP Low Moss near Glasgow. The implications of this for their families have been raised in the HMIP Report on Low Moss (2005).
1.5 All of this prisoner movement has not simply been for the purpose of ending slopping out. It is also in response to large-scale rebuilding. The average number of prisoners has dropped sharply, from 681 in the four month period prior to the last inspection, to 480 at the time of this inspection. At the same time the number of prisoners on remand has increased sharply. So the increase of the proportion of prisoners on remand has been very rapid. On the Friday before the inspection, out of 488 prisoners 187 were on remand: i.e. 38%. At the time of the last full inspection in 2002 the proportion was less than 20%. This has been matched by a decrease in the number of short-term prisoners. This inspection did not find clear evidence of planning for the needs of this increased remand population.
1.6 The inspection also found a lack of planning at different levels in several areas of the life of a prison which must be maintained, whether or not such large changes are taking place. Proper provision for a high number of remand prisoners; clear induction and throughcare procedures for all prisoners; a properly co-ordinated and managed approach to addiction services: these are examples, and there are others in the report, where staff must take ownership.
1.7 The SPS Prisoner Survey shows that food in Perth is considered by prisoners to be among the worst in the SPS. Inspection reports in the past have been critical of the food. It is surprising, therefore, that there is not more evidence of senior management sampling the food in the kitchen and in the halls. There is no doubt that the method of delivering the food to the halls in sealed trays in heated trolleys makes the food worse at the point of serving. During the inspection a change was beginning with the introduction of a servery in one hall. Early responses from prisoners were good. With regard to fresh fruit, it is possible, by choosing every available option, for a prisoner to have ten pieces of fruit per week.
1.8 Friarton Hall was finding it difficult to make a significant contribution to the preparation of prisoners moving to the Open Estate: most prisoners were only spending a short time "passing through". Different possible uses of Friarton were being discussed by prisoners and by staff. Prisoners living there found it difficult to describe that part of their sentence as in any way useful.
1.9 Every prisoner group said they felt safe in Perth prison. The statistics show a significant reduction in the number of violent incidents in the prison. Previous inspections found evidence of very good relationships between prisoners and staff at Perth: this inspection found the same.
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