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Listen
1. PREAMBLE
1.1 "Stable" was the word used by both the Governor and the representative of the Prison Officers' Association to describe Shotts Prison. It describes the relationship between prisoners and staff; it recognises the safe atmosphere throughout the prison, which is remarkable in a prison that was once notorious for violence; and it takes account of the fact that many prisoners in Shotts have been there for a long time and many will be there for a long time to come.
1.2 Different factors contribute to that stability. There is no overcrowding and there is no cell sharing. It is difficult to exaggerate the benefit when a prison holds the number of prisoners for which it was built. There is no rebuilding at Shotts. Several recent reports have welcomed new accommodation being opened in the course of the last two or three years: but such new building is often very difficult to organise on the same site as a fully functioning prison. Shotts has not had to face that complication.
1.3 The last report on Shotts was published in 2004. It reflected on the major changes in the use of different parts of the prison which had moved the prison from "a year of transition" to "a year of consolidation". It is good to see now that consolidation has become stability.
1.4 The most important expression of that stability is in the safety of the prison. Over the last few years management and staff have worked hard, and have been bold in their strategy, to reduce the level of violence in the prison. During the inspection the view was often expressed by prisoners and staff alike, that the prison was a very different place from the prison of years ago. The statistics on violence support this. An inspection published in 1994 quoted the SPS Prisoner Survey in which 40% of prisoners said they feared for their safety. This year the figure is 14%. Less than twenty years ago an HMCIP report stated that "incidents of mass indiscipline and confrontation with staff became the norm". That prison is unrecognisable today: the change is no less impressive because it has taken years to achieve.
1.5 One familiar aspect of the stability of Shotts is commended in this report. For some time family contact and visits have been given some priority. There is no doubt that these matters are extremely important to prisoners: important when they go well and important when they do not. The availability of visits at Shotts is good, as is the visits room: the provision at the tea-bar for visitors and prisoners is very good indeed. Special provision for father and child visits, with highlights like Christmas Dinner, cinema days and photo opportunities, make a real contribution to maintaining family relationships. The work of Family Contact Officers is good, but it is being done as a secondary duty; and it is not able to produce the same impact.
1.6 The evidence provided for the operation of the new system of Integrated Case Management is encouraging. Central to this process is the involvement with Criminal Justice Social Work from the community in any case conference for a prisoner. Links between social work and the prison are good, and there is an attempt to involve families in the process. The use of video conferencing facilities are being developed to make even better the links with CJSW and families, and the paperwork is thorough. However, more work is needed to make sure that the case conferences are run in a way that enables prisoners and their families to contribute fully to the process and that the outcomes of meetings are clearly summarised and recorded.
1.7 A prison can be stable, but still have weaknesses. In healthcare the triage system is not operating for the good of prisoners. There is an element of disciplinary procedure in the system which is not appropriate: it creates difficulty for prison staff and it puts pressure on prisoners to go to work whether or not they are ill.
1.8 Even more serious is the poor practice in suicide risk management. On average 26 prisoners per year are subject to the SPS anti-suicide procedure. However, there had not been a meeting of the Suicide Risk Management Group since February 2006; there was no audit of records, and the process lacked coordination and leadership.
1.9 Stability can sometimes be a bad thing. There has been no change in the toilet provision. Unscreened toilets are within the cells, so prisoners eat and sleep in the presence of this unscreened toilet. One of the strongest recommendations of the last report was that "the toilets in the cells should be screened off". The toilets are still unscreened.
1.10 Ultimately, however valuable stability is, a prison needs to be more than stable. If Shotts is to give prisoners the opportunity to make constructive use of their imprisonment, and to prepare themselves for release, it must improve the training possibilities during the working day. The history of Shotts has been closely identified with "industrial production": but year after year of largely unskilled and repetitive work is not enough. The provision of vocational training is meagre, and links between vocational training and outside employers are poor. What happens in the Learning Centre is good, but far too few prisoners are in a position to make use of it.
1.11 Lack of proper work and learning opportunity is an important aspect of the preparation for release which Shotts needs to improve if it is to move forward. Here are three more. The expectation is that prisoners are not released directly from Shotts but from another prison to which they had progressed. In fact 77 prisoners were released from Shotts in the year 2005-06. Pre-release arrangements for them, both in terms of the psychological issues around release and in terms of links with outside organisations, services and community groups need to be improved.
1.12 The Violence Prevention Programme was introduced in Shotts in 2003. There is a large gap between the number of people who are identified as requiring this programme and the number of places available; later in the process some of those originally identified are not given a place. As a result prisoners are delayed in their progression towards a top-end or to open conditions, and prisoners who should be given places on the programme are not receiving them. If the programme is a useful tool in preventing violence everyone who needs it should be given it.
1.13 When prisoners do progress to an open prison they do not all benefit from the opportunity. In the year before the inspection 46 prisoners went to the Open Estate, and 18 had to return to Shotts because of problems they experienced there. No doubt it is difficult to adjust to the comparative freedom of open conditions, but it is time that Shotts (and other prisons which send prisoners to open conditions) gave more adequate preparation for the change to such prisoners. Almost invariably prisoners are returned because of a failure in connection with drugs, alcohol and access to the community. If moving to open conditions is such a difficult test prisoners need to be better equipped to face it.
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