Committee
Justice Committee 29 January 2013
29 Jan 2013 · S4 · Justice Committee
Item of business
Prison Visits
Yes. I will try to be brief, as a lot of the points have already been covered. I was impressed by the governor and his staff, including the deputy governor, and by their general attitude to and enthusiasm for the prison.We visited a number of different activities. One of the things that disappointed me slightly was that there is in the education area a very good kitchen area and an art room, neither of which are being used. We were also in the laundry room and the tailoring facility; again, absence of staff means that the number of prisoners who can do activities there is restricted. Now that I have had the opportunity to see the figures, I can see that Perth does not figure very well on the scale of purposeful activity—it is below average.I talked to a number of prisoners. I was impressed by the enthusiasm of a young man at the Bike Station, which offers a relatively new activity in Perth. He was very enthusiastic about and keen on the project. Someone from the Bike Station spoke to me about the difficulties in trying to arrange employment, which tallies with what Alison McInnes said about numbers. What we saw was quite good on the whole, but there is a difficulty in making maximum use of the facilities.We also looked at B hall, which has been refurbished, and the suicide cell, which was not being used. I was not overly impressed by the condition of B hall, and I note that a prisoner on remand died in Perth the day after my visit. From that point of view, I was not necessarily terribly happy with the purposeful activity, but I think that the throughcare is positive in that it goes beyond the statutory throughcare. There is currently a project with Dundee that is in its early days. The prison is certainly doing better than average in its approach to throughcare for short-term prisoners.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Item 4 on the agenda is a report on our prison visits. Members have visited Barlinnie, Edinburgh, Inverness, Low Moss, Perth and Polmont over the past two we...
John Finnie
Ind
We were made welcome. A lot of positive work is going on in Inverness. The issues include the limitations caused by the building’s construction and the conse...
The Convener
SNP
Perhaps later we can ask why the women’s unit is so successful. That is interesting.Colin Keir and David McLetchie both went to Saughton. It is HMP Edinburgh...
David McLetchie (Lothian) (Con)
Con
The prisoners’ work programme has limitations, many of which are to do with the significant number of relatively short-stay prisoners, in that it is harder t...
Colin Keir (Edinburgh Western) (SNP)
SNP
I agree. We saw some impressive work activities, such as portable appliance testing and woodwork, but there are fundamental problems, particularly with the s...
The Convener
SNP
Your report mentions internet restrictions and states that internet access for educational purposes is provided successfully elsewhere in the United Kingdom....
Colin Keir
SNP
From what I remember of the conversation that we had on that, the issue is about where to draw the line. Allowing internet access for educational purposes is...
The Convener
SNP
Alison McInnes and I visited Polmont.
Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD)
LD
The visit was interesting and we were made very welcome. We had a good time exploring a number of things. There are particular challenges for a young offende...
The Convener
SNP
I will add a couple of points to that. I accept the difficulties about internet-based learning and I agree with Alison McInnes about what I call education by...
Graeme Pearson
Lab
I attended Low Moss last week. It is a very modern prison; it will be a year old next month. It has 700 prisoners, which is just about full to capacity. Ther...
The Convener
SNP
Does “Education attendance” mean formally sitting down to learn to read, write and count, or does it include—as I think it should—applied education?
Graeme Pearson
Lab
I think that the education includes all sorts of things. There may be a softness to it, in that prisoners who merely attend and show an interest will be incl...
The Convener
SNP
Sandra, do you want to tell us about your visit to Barlinnie? You went to the Bar-L.
Sandra White (Glasgow Kelvin) (SNP)
SNP
Yes—I think that is what they called it when we walked in. It was very interesting—
The Convener
SNP
You got a hat out of it.
Sandra White
SNP
I got a hat and a mug—the clerk got a mug as well—which you cannot buy. Perhaps in later years the mug might appear as an heirloom on the “Antiques Roadshow”...
The Convener
SNP
I am conscious, having done it myself, that we have been speaking about purposeful activity, which is a spectrum of activities including activities to addres...
Sandra White
SNP
We should raise that point as we proceed with our inquiry. In Barlinnie, a number of the prisoners who took part in courses were able to get Scottish vocatio...
The Convener
SNP
Do employers go into Barlinnie?
Sandra White
SNP
Martin Plant Hire employs a number of prisoners; they do not use an apprenticeship process, but the prisoners work there. Various other companies are involve...
The Convener
SNP
You, too, had experience of the Bike Station, Alison.
Alison McInnes
LD
Yes.
The Convener
SNP
Do we know whether the people got jobs at the end of it?
Alison McInnes
LD
I think that one person was employed at the Bike Station after they had left prison.
The Convener
SNP
Roddy—you were at Perth prison.
Roderick Campbell
SNP
Yes. I will try to be brief, as a lot of the points have already been covered. I was impressed by the governor and his staff, including the deputy governor, ...
The Convener
SNP
I thank members for that.I suspend the meeting briefly to allow Colin McConnell to take his place so that members can ask questions in our purposeful activit...