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Subject the PRISON SERVICE Map GRAHAM ROSS & DENIS OAG

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Subject the PRISON SERVICE Map GRAHAM ROSS & DENIS OAG SPICe THE SCOTTISH CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: subject THE PRISON SERVICE map GRAHAM ROSS & DENIS OAG 9 May 2007 This subject map is one of six covering v arious aspects of the Scottish criminal justice system. It provid es a brief description of the operation of the prison service in Scotland, including information on the system of Devolved Area early release for prisoners. 07/05 The other five subject maps in this series are: • The Scottish Criminal Justice System: Legal and Administrative Arrangements (11/54) • The Scottish Criminal Justice System: The Police (11/62) • The Scottish Criminal Justice System: The Public Prosecution System (12/25) • The Scottish Criminal Justice System: The Criminal Courts (11/59) • Children and the Scottish Criminal Justice System (11/53) Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) Briefings are compiled for the benefit of the Members of the Parliament and their personal staff. Authors are available to discuss the contents of these papers with MSPs and their staff who should contact Graham Ross on extension 85159 or email [email protected]. Members of the public or external organisations may comment on this briefing by emailing us at [email protected]. However, researchers are unable to enter into personal discussion in relation to SPICe Briefing Papers. If you have any general questions about the work of the Parliament you can email the Parliament’s Public Information Service at [email protected]. Every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in SPICe briefings is correct at the time of publication. Readers should be aware however that briefings are not necessarily updated or otherwise amended to reflect subsequent changes. www.scottish.parliament.uk 1 CONTENTS THE SCOTTISH PRISON SERVICE............................................................................................................................3 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................................3 Prison Establishments..........................................................................................................................................3 Prison Population .................................................................................................................................................6 Developments in the Prison Estate......................................................................................................................7 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland .............................................................................................9 Scottish Prisons Complaints Commission ...........................................................................................................9 EARLY RELEASE ARRANGEMENTS FOR PRISONERS.......................................................................................10 Current Arrangements for Determinate Sentence Prisoners.............................................................................10 Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Act 2007 ..................................................................................10 Arrangements for Life Sentence Prisoners........................................................................................................11 SOURCES ..................................................................................................................................................................12 providing research and information services to the Scottish Parliament 2 THE SCOTTISH PRISON SERVICE Introduction The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is an executiv e agency 1 of the Scottish Executive. It currently employs over 4,000 staff, and manages 16 prison establishmen ts with an average daily population of ap proximately 6,800 (figures taken from SPS 2006 and Scottish Executiv e 2006a). The SPS is headed by a Chief Executive who is directly a ccountable to the Minister for Justice for the running of the agency.2 The Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989 (c.45), and procedural rules made under the Act provide the framework for the operation of prisons and young offenders institutions. Whilst SPS has no statutory duty to rehabilitate prisoners, it has reco gnised the importance of rehabilitation. In 2000 SPS published its “ Vision for Correction al E xcellence” setting out a commitment to providing “outst anding prison practice in protecting the public and reducing the risk of re-offending”. The key aims (the “mission statement”) of SPS are: • to keep in custody those committed by the courts • to maintain good order in each prison • to care for prisoners with humanity • to provide prisoners with a rang e of opportunities to e xercise personal responsibility and to prepare for release • to play a full role in the integration of offender management services Prison Establishments The Scottish Prison Service estate currently comprises 16 prison establishments. They range in size and type from Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Barlinnie in Glas gow, with a design c apacity of over 1,000 plac es, to HMP Inverness, which can hold just over 100 pr isoners. Her Majesty’s Young Offenders Ins titution (HMYOI) Polmont is a dedicated establishm ent solely for male young offenders HMP/YOI Cornton Va le near Stirling is the main establishment for female prisoners. HMP Castle Huntly and HMP Noranside together comp rise the ‘open est ate’. HMP Kilmarnock is privately managed by Premier Prisons under contract to the SPS. A nu mber of prisons, such as HMP Perth, HMP Barlin nie and HMP Peterhead were built in the 19 th century and have been upgraded in recent year s to provide m odern facilities similar to those offered in new build establishments such as HMP Kilmarnock. As indicated above, prisons vary in type and also in the populations that they hold. The majority of prisons in Scotland are local/remand prisons (see table below). For example: 1 Executive agencies may be established by Scottish Ministers as part of Scottish Executive departments, or as departments in their own right, to carry out discrete areas of work. They are staffed by civil servants. 2 At the time of writing, the current Chief Executive of SPS is Mike Ewart. providing research and information services to the Scottish Parliament 3 • HMP Barlinnie receives prisoners from the courts in the West of Scotland. It retains male remand prisoners and prisoner s serving sentences of less than four years. It also allocates s uitable prisoners from its convict ed population to lower sec urity prison s, including HMP Low M oss, and manages prisoners serving more than four years or more in the initial phase of their sentence until places become available for them in the lon g term prisoner system • HMP Shotts is a maximum-security prison for long term adult male prisoners. Purpose built in 1978 it caters for long-term male prisoners serving se ntences of four years and over who are transferred from ot her establishments and who require to be kept in secur e conditions • HMP/YOI Cornton Vale prov ides custodial facilities and services for remanded and convicted f emales (including young offenders) in all sentence r anges and supervis ion levels. HMYOI Polmont contains male pris oners under 21 (in some cases up to the age of 23). The prisoner s it contains are bot h convicted and on remand, with convict ed prisoners serving sentences ranging from a few days to life • HMP Castle Huntly and HMP Noranside together comprise the ‘open estate’. Both focus on providing employ ment trai ning and transitional/through-ca re for prisoners working towards a structured reintegration into soci ety. Both are open prisons h olding low supervision adult male prisoner s serving 18 m onths and over, includ ing life sentence prisoners, who have been ass essed as suitable to s erve part of their sentence in open conditions As stated above, HM YOI Polmont contains the male under-21 prison popul ation in Sc otland. Although it is widely accepted that children under the age of 16 should not be held in prison, this situation does occur from time to time. A follow-up inspection carried out at Polmont by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in Scotland in 2004 stated: “It is not possible for Polmont itself to control or limit the number of children under 16 who are detained within it. Since the last inspection one year ago 11 such people were admitted. Seven were as the result of there being no space in a secure unit. They were in Polmont for an average of 13 days, ranging from 2 days to 42 days. Four were as a result of their being deemed by Secure Units as too difficult to be held. Their average length of stay was 44 days, ranging from 13 days to 130 days. No children under 16 were in Polmont during the inspection”. Children may be placed in secure accommodation under a supervision requirement made by a children’s hearing. The grounds for bringing a child before a hearing are set down in section 52(2) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (c.36) and include that the child: • is beyond the control of parents or carers • is at risk of moral danger • is or has been the victim of an offence, including physical injury or sexual abuse • is likely to suffer serious harm to health or development through lack of care • is misusing drugs, alcohol or solvents • has committed an offence • is not attending school regularly without a reasonable excuse • is subject to an antisocial behaviour order and the Sheriff requires
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