ANNUAL REPORT 1995-96

9. CONCLUSIONS

9.1 The public continued to be protected from those violent and persistent criminals who were held in SPS custody. Last year was also the second in succession for over a decade when there were no riots or hostage taking incidents in Scottish prisons, which was a significant achievement. However, although good order was generally maintained, there was a worrying rise in the number of serious assaults, with over 100 such incidents occurring involving fractures, slashing and numerous stabbings; injuries suffered by prison officers in the course of their duty also doubled. It may be that this unacceptable and increasing trend is a replication of some of the unsavoury aspects of the drug and gang culture which is now endemic in other parts of our society.

9.2 Following on from a previously successful year many imaginative initiatives were launched with an impressive range of changes taking place across all 22 penal establishments, where a gradual but comprehensive building and refurbishment programme was underway. Nevertheless, management, staff and prisoners continued to face a number of more obstinate difficulties including:

Overcrowding Six establishments were seriously overcrowded. Whether a new 500 place PFI prison will be built in time to end or offset this overcrowding before the SPS is overtaken by further increases in the criminal population remains to be seen. However the early provision of alternatives to custody such as bail hostels would help considerably to ease this chronic problem.

Lack of Work Commercial and other pressures have combined to produce a situation whereby there is insufficient work for convicted prisoners, which allows neither their debt to society to be repaid nor for adequate training for release. A high level review of prison industries which was long overdue, has now been commissioned to address employment and other regime issues. In the interim, a timetable approach combining work, education and offending behaviour programmes which has been successfully adopted by HMP Shotts, may be worthy of consideration.

Drug Abuse Random MDT has been introduced at two establishments in recent months and will gradually be extended across the SPS in the coming year. However, as no new funds have been made available to resource this initiative, there is a danger that it may be implemented at the expense of funding for drug addiction workers who are of as much importance in the struggle against drug abuse and all that it brings in its train. Indeed, as the policy behind the MDT programme accepts, long term education offers the best hope for significant reduction in repeat offences. If the SPS is unable wholly to fund the addiction workers needed, then Local Authorities should be encouraged to take part in a joint initiative as the scourge of drug abuse eventually impinges back on us all. Hopefully the appropriate support and coordination for this might be found via the "Scotland Against Drugs" Campaign. It should also be recognised that boredom, particularly at weekends when the regime is at its most limited, could be contributing at another level to some degree of abuse. More imaginative measures are therefore required to make better use of prison time - of which there is an abundance - to get individuals off drugs, especially whilst they are, in theory, free from some of the pressures of their local friends and culture. This is an intriguing but by no means a hopeless challenge.

Suicide The total of eight tragic deaths may be less dramatic than in the previous year, when there were 16. This figure is unacceptable nonetheless, with a particularly appalling attrition rate amongst young remands. The Gunn Report was expected to provide some keen insights which will help prison Governors refocus their activity in relation to the integrated care of prisoners. This is particularly needed in respect of remand prisoners upon whom the stresses of uncertainty, separation from family and paucity of regime weigh most heavily. It may however be an inescapable reality that as prison populations grow and despite the best efforts of the SPS, there will always be a number of suicides (or victims) in prison, in the same way as there are in the community.

9.3 Victims of crime in general have a share in what the SPS is increasingly trying to do on their behalf and on that of society at large. A major policy shift and focus now requires violent and persistent criminals to confront their offending behaviour and here we see much to be encouraged by - for example, in the sex offender treatment programme at Peterhead. Further consideration and evaluation of these and other programmes is, however, now required before further general expansion takes place. In this respect we see the urgent need for coordination of offending behaviour programmes across the Service. Lack of coordination will result in further piecemeal development which will ultimately slow progress.

9.4 But many prisoners do not fit into the violent or persistent category. The majority of prisoners which the Inspectorate has seen on its inspections are inadequates, mentally disturbed or have fallen foul of drugs or alcohol but they too must be included in a purposeful regime, despite limited resources. Remand prisoners seem always to be left with the smaller slice of the cake and therefore often have an extremely unproductive and monotonous existence as a result. They ought in fact to be receiving the best regime available. Additionally, some individuals who are not a significant threat to society, could be less expensively held in bail hostels. (Invariably up to 60% will not be judged guilty of an offence or given custodial sentences in any case.)

9.5 Our Thematic Study into prison visits has led us to conclude that prisoners' families deserve much closer attention. Whilst it may be wholly appropriate for offenders to be held in austere conditions we see no need for their families to be punished as well. Indeed, common-sense dictates that everything should be done to increase links between the two, as the damage wrought to families by imprisonment represents a repair bill which society might well have to honour at some later stage. Families have the potential to help change prisoners' attitudes and therefore to assist with the reduction of future crime and numbers of their victims. Their concern must, however, be harnessed and a twin track approach involving them and prison staff has therefore much to commend it. The initial link for this is now being provided through FCDOs, an initiative for which the SPS should be thoroughly commended.

9.6 Finally, we have made comment on management and staff whose daily task it is to deal with a large and disparate group of criminals - they are the most important resource of all, much more so than any bricks or mortar. SPS staff have undergone many radical changes to their structure and working conditions in the last year which in turn has understandably generated much ongoing uncertainty and anxiety. There has also been a very high turnover of staff with 318 staff leaving over the year and over 400 new recruits having joined. These individuals are the instruments of further change in the years ahead, successful implementation of which will depend on the skill of staff in general and of Managers in particular. In this respect there is much to be done to ensure that they are fully trained to meet the challenges ahead and that a period of consolidation is found for this - and very soon.

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