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1. PREAMBLE
1.1 Edinburgh Prison is almost entirely new. With the exception of one hall built 11 years ago the whole prison has been rebuilt in the last five years. Different stages of this rebuilding have been welcomed in previous inspection reports; at each stage, however, the difficulties of managing a prison while massive rebuilding work was taking place on the same site were observed. The building work has at last been completed. The investment has been at least £120 million. There is clear evidence in this report of benefits that the rebuilding has produced.
1.2 Living conditions for all convicted prisoners are good. The last new accommodation hall, Ratho, was opened only days before the inspection. It has showers within the cells. All the new halls provide much better conditions for prison staff as well as for prisoners; although the size of the halls may, as inspection reports have noted before, bring problems of noise and physical distance between prisoners and staff. The oldest hall, Glenesk, is of much poorer quality. The prisoners who live in this least attractive accommodation are remand prisoners, most of whom have not been convicted of any offence.
1.3 New building has brought improvements not only to prisoner accommodation. The new training workshops are quite splendidly equipped, the new kitchen and laundry are great improvements, the new gym and fitness room are very impressive. The purpose-built reception area is ideal. The health centre has been praised in previous reports. It would be alarming if there were not clear signs that this great expenditure had not made a great difference. It is good, therefore, that this report shows that some aspects of Edinburgh Prison are excellent. The library, the laundry arrangements, the canteen, the Links Centre, PE and chaplaincy are all commended. Elsewhere there is a clear sense that this year is an important year for Edinburgh Prison. The building work has finished: first-class facilities are in place. The highest peaks of overcrowding, which were very high, of a few months ago, appear to have been - at least for the moment - left behind. The next months must see the promise offered by the new buildings being fulfilled.
1.4 Safety has improved. This was the clear message of every prisoner group and of many individual prisoners and members of staff. Despite significant increases in prisoner numbers, the number of serious assaults has dropped. This is partly due to increased closed-circuit cameras, partly to the introduction of a police liaison officer, partly due to better living conditions, and partly due to good relationships between staff and prisoners. At no time did any prisoner complain to inspectors of ill-treatment by staff. The engagement of staff with prisoners observed during the inspection was always appropriate, sometimes challenging and often cheerful. But the design of the new halls, as has been noted before, does make it more likely that staff in these halls will find themselves in their own area when they might usefully be where prisoners are.
1.5 There are three disappointments in this report. On every occasion when the workshops were visited some (sometimes many) of them were empty. These workshops are an outstanding resource to train people for work when they return to society and to allow them to spend their prison sentences doing something useful. It is a shameful waste that they should regularly be lying empty. At the same time, of course, the prisoners who should be making good use of them are locked in their cells all day. This point was made clearly by representatives of the Visiting Committee.
1.6 Linked to this disappointment is another. The atmosphere of Edinburgh Prison changes noticeably at weekends. There is very little provision indeed for anything good to happen at weekends. The food is less good, there are almost no out-of-cell activities, and most of the so-called recreation facilities available are very tedious. A weekend in Edinburgh Prison is "mind-numbing".
1.7 Linked to these two disappointments is a third. Some groups of prisoners have a noticeably worse experience of imprisonment in Edinburgh than others. Protection prisoners have much less access to the good things of the prison than do mainstream prisoners. But at the bottom of the heap are remand prisoners, whose living conditions, out-of-cell activities, access to induction, relationships with staff and recreation opportunities are by far the worst in the prison. It cannot be repeated too often that these are nearly all, in the eyes of the law, innocent people; and many of them will not be given a prison sentence. It is unfair that they should have worse conditions and opportunities than convicted prisoners. Most unhappy of all is this: the remand prisoners who have the worst deal of all are those who are young. There is one very good motor workshop for some of them. For the rest the only thing they can look forward to apart from PE, a visit and a day locked in a cell is a recreation period. For some of them the only recreation facility available is a table tennis table which is broken. And they are never allowed to eat in company with each other.
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