| It means convicts nearing the end of their sentences at secure units such as Glasgow’s Barlinnie would begin moving to the open estate, which has about 170 spare places.
The reason it’s running under capacity is due to a toughening of procedures surrounding transfer to the jails after the Robert Foye case — he raped a schoolgirl while on the run from Castle Huntly — and growing anger over the number of prisoners who abscond.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is looking at plans to convert part of the open prison estate to make it fit for use by “secure” inmates.
The Scottish jail population has reached a record 8137 but the country’s prisons are only designed to hold 6626.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman today confirmed it was among a range of options being looked at. “It’s just one option being looked at by the SPS and the government.
“We’d have to consider who we put in the open estate from secure units, but I think you’d be looking at people at the end of their sentences.”
The number of prisoners allowed in Castle Huntly and Noranside has been slashed by nearly a third from a daily average of 487 in 2007-8 to 350 since the Robert Foye scandal.
In March, a report by the Scottish Prison Service identified weaknesses in the way prisoners were transferred to open prisons.
It highlighted shortcomings in the way inmates were assessed for the risk they would pose to the public before being moved from a secure prison, and once they had arrived in an open jail.
The spokesman confirmed the open estate was running well below capacity. “That because of the new review set-up that means it’s taking much longer to get all the information we need to satisfy the risk assessment process,” he said.
“Far fewer are moving across and we are finding an equivalent number are being released, so the figures are pretty static.”
Among the measures believed to be halting the stream of prisoners to the open estate is that every short-term inmate is being subjected to the same standard of risk assessment as long-termers.
Until recently, it’s understood, inmates sentenced to under four years were given less methodical checks when they were considered for transfer to the open estate. They were also allowed leave without proper checks on where they would stay and with whom they would mix.
It is understood transfers are now signed off by a senior manager, while risk assessments on prisoners are updated on a weekly basis as opposed to the previous ad hoc approach.
Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said dumping prisoners into the open estate to ease congestion in Scotland’s jails was simply not acceptable.
“I do wish the SPS would actually get on with what they are paid to do and stop whingeing about high prison numbers,” he said.
“The principal consideration has to be public safety. There is a place for open prisons within the overall prison estate but as has been proved – sometimes with tragic consequences – only those who can be trusted should be in open jails.
“If the SPS thinks this is a device for emptying the conventional jails, this is simply not on.”
Tayside Police are still searching for a violent criminal who absconded from Noranside last week. Robert Jamieson Mudie has been missing since Wednesday after failing to return from home leave in Dundee.
It’s thought he is most likely still in the city. Police were checking the homes of acquaintances and family members of the 34-year-old over the weekend.
Mudie was sentenced to three years in prison at Dundee Sheriff Court in February 2006 for drug offences. |
