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5. CONTACT
Family Contact
5.1 Arrangements for maintaining family contact are very good. Booking arrangements for visits are straightforward and entitlement to visits is high and flexible. Visits are not cancelled for administrative purposes. If spaces are available then prisoners can book them, even if their entitlement is taken. In addition to regular visits the prison provides father and child visits and also a two hour quality visit per month, which offers the opportunity to take family photographs. A number of other initiatives are in place including family cinema days and Christmas Dinner. A Family Consultation Forum is in place which offers families the opportunity to make suggestions and consult with visits staff. Staff give presentations to the community on their work and try to involve families in induction and Integrated Case Management (although there has been limited take up of these opportunities).
5.2 Visits staff are very helpful and approachable and the work of the Family Contact Development Officers is good. However, the work of the FCDO is now being done as a secondary duty, which means that they are not able to produce the same impact as previously.
5.3 Parking spaces for disabled visitors are available and facilities good. Shotts prison is fairly remote and at the time of inspection the SACRO bus was not operating. The prison was trying to remedy this. A makeshift 'bus shelter' is in place when visitors have to occasionally wait outside the main prison gate.
5.4 Overall, arrangements for maintaining family contact are an area of good practice.
The Visits Room
5.5 The visits room is large, bright, spacious and well decorated. Staff ensure that a good balance is found between privacy and security. Provision at the tea bar is very good. The tea bar is operated by two different contractors and the prison should ensure that there is no discrepancy in prices. The children's play area is unsupervised and this should be addressed. Toilet and baby changing facilities are provided and were clean.
5.6 Officers do not immediately and routinely intervene during drug incidents in the visits room. Rather, they carry out a risk assessment and decide whether to intervene during the visit session, or after the session has finished.
Information
5.7 The availability of information for prisoners and visitors is very good. The visitors waiting area contains a number of leaflets and posters. These are available in a range of languages. FCDOs are always available to prisoners and names and photographs of the FCDOs are prominently displayed in the visits area. There is a 24 hour answering machine in the FCDO office.
Searching
5.8 Arrangements for searching visitors are appropriate.
Communications
5.9 There are sufficient telephones in Shotts to allow prisoners reasonable access. They also have a good system when a telephone is not working. Spares are held on site so a broken telephone can be replaced quickly without the need for the contractor to be called.
5.10 Most telephones have canopies although one on the ground floor of 'D' Hall did not. The phones in the Segregation Unit and in the dining room in Kerr House are in cabinets. The cabinets are excellent for providing privacy and excluding background noise. The canopies provide some privacy but are not ideal.
5.11 Notices explaining the conditions under which telephone calls are made are on display next to every 'phone. A few prisoners mentioned the pre-recorded message that precedes outgoing calls and described it as an irritation and embarrassment. At the time of inspection its legality was subject to Judicial Review.
5.12 Incoming and outgoing mail is well managed. Prisoners receive incoming mail as soon as is practicable after the appropriate checks have been made. Outgoing mail is transported from the halls to the general office at least twice a day and is posted within a few hours of being handed out by the prisoner. There are no limits to the number of letters prisoners can send. Some prisoners expressed slight frustration at being limited to the number of telephone contacts they can have listed. Arrangements for handling legally privileged mail are described at paragraph 6.3.
5.13 There are no major issues in the way the prison facilitates contact between prisoners and their friends and families by telephone and by post.
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