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Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland: Report for 1999-2000

3.17 Open Prisons (North and East)

HMP Noranside as at November 1999 (previous formal inspection October 1998)

In this first follow up inspection of Noranside, we were pleased to note the progress which had been made in a number of areas while, at the same time, maintaining high housekeeping standards.

We were encouraged to note that, notwithstanding the temporary closure of 'C' and 'D' wings for maintenance and refurbishment which had reduced the available capacity from 135 to 95, there were 93 prisoners at Noranside. This was in spite of difficulties in identifying suitable candidates at an appropriate stage of their sentence, which had been partly addressed by improvements in the administrative and documentation processes and visits to closed establishments holding 'D' category prisoners.

Concern was expressed by the management team about the standard of casework in a number of instances when unsuitable prisoners had been returned to closed conditions. We were given examples of prisoners who had outstanding charges, including drug offences, or were subject to Supervised Release Orders or were discovered to be Schedule 1 Offenders. The number of prisoners returned to closed conditions in the year since our formal inspection was broadly the same as the previous year, the main reasons for return continuing to be drug misuse or involvement in drug activities.

The proposed rationalisation of the SPS estate may result in closer matching of the requirement for places with available capacity in open prisons. This would, however, require a review of the allocation criteria for open prisons. Noranside currently holds both long term and short term prisoners and we were told that this continues to create some tensions because of the different conditions which applied to each prisoner group. Additionally, a review of the orderly room and other statistics revealed that short term prisoners accounted for a disproportionately high number of incidents.

There had been a high turnover in administration staff which had resulted in a fluctuating and occasionally heavy workload pending the filling of the vacancies. The Governor felt however, that the establishment would be able to cope with any sudden demand for open spaces which may arise.

Noranside continues to provide an excellent opportunity to prepare for release for those prisoners approaching the end of their sentence and offers potential for yet further development.

HMP Castle Huntly as at January 2000 (previous formal inspection November 1996)

This latest inspection coincided with the Governor's last day at Castle Huntly prior to his transfer to Noranside as Governor in Charge.

We were pleased to note that following our last intermediate inspection, only three issues remain to be addressed. It is with some disappointment therefore, that we record that SPS HQ has still not issued clear and unequivocal guidance to all establishments on the use of inundation bungs fitted to cell doors in spite of this issue having been raised in the report of our formal inspection in November 1996. We have been advised that the SPS Fire Safety Manual, currently in draft form does cover this issue.

The other outstanding issues - transport arrangements for outworkers including public transport and the need for a staff alarm in the dental surgery have been satisfactorily resolved at the establishment.

Castle Huntly was in the throes of changing role as a consequence of the closure of Penninghame Prison to accommodate long term prisoners as well as its current population of short termers. Long term prisoners had been transferring from Penninghame since early January and it was expected that transfers from that establishment would be completed by mid February.

To inform the local community about the change of role, a meeting had been held on 10 January 2000 to outline the changes. Considerable concern had been voiced, particularly by parents, about plans to accommodate category 'D' sex offenders at Castle Huntly.

There had been further developments in the risk assessment process for prisoners who were being considered for community placements. The Governor pointed out that since the establishment has last changed role in September 1995 from an open young offenders institution to an open prison, there had only been one abscond from a community placement - an excellent record.

We were also pleased to note that the rate of positive random drug tests had fallen from 27% in 1997-98 to an average of 18% in the first 6 months of 1999-2000.

At the time of our visit, the prison was operating at 66% capacity and the Governor expected the numbers to rise from 103 to a capacity 150 by the end of the financial year. He also expected that the occupation rate of Noranside would show a similar significant and sustained improvement. It was planned that the two open establishments would operate, as far as possible, to common procedures and rules as they would both hold a mix of short and long term prisoners. In our inspections of Noranside, we have found that this has created some tensions because of the different and usually more severe consequences of breaches of discipline for long term prisoners compared to short termers.

Finally, we were pleased to note further improvement to the already high standards of cleanliness and the relaxed and positive atmosphere which reflected the senior management team's approach.

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