Scotland’s prisons ‘simmering on the brink of crisis’, ministers warned

Scotland’s jails are “simmering on the brink of a crisis”, ministers have been warned, with the head of the Scottish Prison Service adding that the benefits of an emergency release scheme to free some offenders last year have now been “lost”.

Teresa Medhurst said staff are dealing with a “near record prison population” and “severe overcrowding”.

The SPS chief executive also said prison staff have to deal with a “myriad of challenges around serious and organised crime, illicit substances, mental health, and trauma”.

While she said the work prison staff do is “truly remarkable”, Ms Medhurst was frank about the situation in Scotland’s jails, stating: “Let me be clear. Our prisons are simmering on the brink of a crisis that threatens to overwhelm us and the communities we work so hard to protect.”

Writing in The Scotsman, she said the number of inmates has “grown way beyond the level prisons were built to hold”, warning of the “risks and strain” on staff.

Without last year’s emergency release programme, and a change to the law this year to allow some short-term prisoners to be freed earlier, she added that “our situation would be far worse”.

The measures from the Scottish Government allowed some inmates serving sentences of less than four years to be released, but sex offenders and those jailed for domestic abuse were not eligible.

Ms Medhurst said thanks to those schemes, the number of short term prisoners in Scotland’s jails is now “roughly 100 below the level of two years ago”.

But she added: “Sadly, that benefit has been lost amid the sharp increase we have seen in long-term prisoners – those serving more than four years – which is now around 600 higher than it was two years ago.”

Her comments come after the Prison Officers Association (Scotland) pointed to the rising number of prisoners as the key issue facing jails.

Assistant general secretary Phil Fairlie told MSPs earlier this month that driving down prisoner numbers would “make a huge difference” in improving standards inside prisons.

Speaking to the Criminal Justice Committee, he said: “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.”

Justice Secretary Angela Constance meanwhile praised the “incredible work of Scottish Prison Service (SPS) staff whose dedication is shown in the exceptional care they provide in complex situations”.

She added: “Scotland is not alone in facing challenges as a result of a rise in the prison population. There is no single reason for the increase and there is no single solution.

“We have taken a range of actions to address the issue and continuing to work with the SPS and partners on further measures to manage the complex prison population in a sustainable way.”