Meeting of the Parliament 26 February 2026 [Draft]
Thank you. I appreciate the points that Audrey Nicoll has made. However, the point that prison management made to me was that those issues were down to overcrowding, to those who were on remand not qualifying for the purposeful activity courses, and to the numbers of prisoners on remand exacerbating the overcrowding issues. The remand figures cause real problems.
The committee’s report highlights that enforcement measures alone will not solve the crisis. Security measures such as body scanners and anti-drone technology are clearly important, and we need to tackle supply, but that has to be matched with prevention, treatment and recovery services. We need that whole-system approach.
Mental health care clearly needs improvement, too. Many individuals in custody struggle with mental health and substance use disorders but, as Elena Whitham pointed out, their access to treatment becomes inconsistent. The disparity between the treatment that they received outside prison in community healthcare and what they receive in prison starts to exacerbate the mental health issues that they have.
The transition from custody to community is a period of heightened risk for overdose, relapse and reoffending. Every person leaving prison should have a comprehensive release plan that includes housing, healthcare and support services, including those on remand, who sometimes do not go through a planned release programme, as I mentioned. Without that, the cycle of addiction, reoffending and imprisonment will carry on.
Many other members have mentioned the importance of involving lived experience in shaping poverty. The afternoon that I spent in Barlinnie, when I walked around the prison and talked to so many people about their experience of how they ended up there, what life was like and what was causing them to come back over and over, was crucial for gathering evidence and making policy.
Addressing substance misuse in Scottish prisons requires systemic reform. We need to break down barriers between the justice system and the health system, invest in prevention and treatment and ensure that prisons become places of rehabilitation rather than a revolving door.