Overcrowding biggest issue in Scottish prisons, says officer body

Overcrowding is the biggest issue in Scotland’s prisons, the prison officers’ union has said.

The comments come following reports that the prison population now exceeds the number locked up before the Scottish Government decided to release prisoners as an emergency measure both last summer and earlier this year.

Speaking at a meeting of the Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday about drug use in prison, Phil Fairlie, the assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers Association (Scotland) pointed to the rising number of prisoners as the key issue facing institutions across the country.

“Genuinely, overcrowding is the biggest single influence on all of the things as a committee you would want to look at, including this issue,” he said.

“Because that is the thing that has completely hamstrung everything else that we would want to be doing inside a prison on a day-to-day basis.

“We don’t have the time or the space or the human resource to manage what we’ve been asked to manage, and so everything has taken a hit at the moment, everything is being done less well than we are capable of doing and are used to doing.”

Driving down prisoner numbers, Mr Fairlie said, would “make a huge difference” in improving standards inside prisons.

“That includes the ability to intercept more of the drugs that are coming in, the ability to gather intelligence and build relationships that always help to allow us to know what we need to do next to stop the next lot coming in,” he added.

Failing a decrease in population, Mr Fairlie suggested an increase in staff could help.

Under questioning by Tory MSP Liam Kerr, Mr Fairlie told the committee that current drug screening systems are “not adequate”.

Any changes that are made to the screening process in prisons, he added, are eventually foiled by organised crime.

“The organised crime gangs, the minute we introduce a piece of equipment, are working on a workaround and they are circumventing that process from the day that it’s introduced.”

One way drugs – and weapons, according to Mr Fairlie – are smuggled into prisons is through the use of drones which are flown to cell windows.

Later in the committee hearing on Wednesday, a senior police officer backed the creation of no-fly zones around Scotland’s prisons to tackle drone trafficking.

Asked by Mr Kerr if he favoured the move, Detective Chief Superintendent Raymond Higgins said: “My view is, yes, it would be helpful, I think, as a part of our suite of options to look to try and disrupt that type of activity.”

In England and Wales, it is illegal to fly a drone within 400 metres of a prison or young offenders institution.

Mr Fairlie said window grills had been deployed in a bid to stem the issue, but those measures were quickly “compromised”.

MSPs also heard of the pervasive nature of drugs in Scotland’s prisons, with Scottish Prison Service (SPS) head of operations and public protection Jim Smith claiming some vulnerable prisoners are being used as “guinea pigs” to test substances brought in by drone for others.

“We have had instances of of people being bullied into taking packages in from windows from drones because it’s easier for their window to be exploited,” he said.

“(HMP Shotts governor) Gillian (Walker) has described people who are used as guinea pigs almost to test the strength of drugs – whether that’s consensual or not is a different matter.”