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

3.18 Open Prisons (South and West)

HMP Penninghame as at March 2000 (previous formal inspection December 1996)

As part of the rationalisation of the SPS estate, HMP Penninghame closed on 6 March 2000, after 46 years of providing open conditions for SPS prisoners. It had first opened in December 1954 and a very large number of long term prisoners had been held there whilst they undertook work opportunities in the nearby town and surrounding countryside. The establishment was some distance away from where the majority of prisoners originated and this, combined with its dormitory accommodation and over capacity of open places had brought about its closure.

Best Practice

3.19 Items of best practice observed during formal inspections in 1999-00 were:-

HMYOI Dumfries

1. Special referral forms were being used for anyone concerned about the mental health of any YO/prisoner.

HMP Kilmarnock

1. The prison had its own trained drug dog handler and two dogs -one active and one passive.

2. Ex-drug using prisoners were involved in delivering drugs courses to remand prisoners.

3. As an alternative to telephone cards, a PIN number system was in operation and each prisoner had a telephone account, with no limit on the amount of cash that could be in any account.

4. The regime operated on the basis that all prisoners had a significant amount of time out of cell and there was a 2145 hours lock-up, seven days a week.

5. The establishment had produced a Benefits Agency letter in which prisoners only had to fill in personal details before posting in order to claim outstanding benefits that might be due to them.

6. The social work unit had an IT programme to log and track their work, thereby ensuring that up-to-date information was always on hand.

7. All visitors to the establishment had to go through an identification process that involved a video image and a fingerprint scan.

8. Prisoners' photographs were included in the medical records.

9. The prison used a customised medical admission assessment form, which paid particular attention to assisting the examiner to highlight any psychiatric risks, through a comprehensive check-list of risk factors.

10. There was a specially designed and structured emergency hospital referral form, which set out relevant important information about prisoners and details of any medical actions already taken prior to the transfer from prison to accident and emergency department.

11. Where appropriate, medical records also contained a set of shared care forms as part of the management of prisoners who were infected with a blood borne virus, especially Hepatitis C.

12. A duplicate copy of prisoners' dental records was kept in the medical records.

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