Meeting of the Parliament 26 February 2026 [Draft]
Scotland’s prison estate does not need to seek its troubles. Inmate numbers are at record levels, staff are reporting unprecedented challenges and prisoners are leaving without rehabilitation, going out into a world for which they are completely unprepared. What is worse, the estate itself is in deep trouble: promised new jails for Glasgow and the Highlands are years late and ludicrously over budget.
This debate focuses on yet another challenge, which is one that Scottish Government has failed miserably to address: the issue of substance misuse, which creates chaos inside prisons and places unbearable stress and pressure on hard-working prison officers.
The crisis damages the prospects of inmates, too. For many, incarceration is supposed to serve as a punishment for what they have done and to act as a deterrent from repeating that behaviour. It is also supposed to provide rehabilitation: they should have new skills, a new attitude and perhaps even an enthusiasm for a future in which they will be a well-functioning, contributing member of society. Yet the drug-taking culture in prisons is stopping much of that from happening.
The public—rightly—expect jails to be secure facilities where the only things that get in and out are approved people and products. Perhaps small errors could be accepted, but the scale of drugs and alcohol inside is eye watering. Those criminals who successfully get the contraband in seem constantly to be a step ahead of the authorities. They use drones and drug-soaked mail—essentially, they use any trick that they can to do that.
Scotland’s drug deaths crisis is well documented, but the one place where people should be absolutely free of its clutches is in a secure state facility. Many inmates turn up to prison addicted to drugs or alcohol, and their addiction probably contributed to their crime. However, one of the most worrying statistics that I heard during the inquiry is that many prisoners report developing addiction for the first time while in jail. Some surveys indicate that, on leaving prison, between one quarter and one third of them have illegal substances in their body.
How have we got to this shocking situation? Scotland’s high prison population is one reason. Bursting at the seams, the inadequate estate is staffed by fatigued and stressed-out prison officers, which creates an environment that is more likely to descend into chaos. Those pressures leave staff with less time to work on intelligence and investigate where the drugs are getting in and who is taking them. Underinvestment in activities means that prisoners are bored and driven to revisiting previous substance abuse habits.
Much of the focus is on drugs, but we should not overlook the issue of alcohol. It is thought that around a third of prisoners are alcohol dependent. They are not only offered insufficient help in jail to beat that addiction; it is too easy for them to access illicit alcohol while they are serving their sentence.
Nobody is pretending that there are easy answers to that. As the Prison Officers Association states, the system is under “pressure like never before.” The blend of prisoners—foreigners, organised criminals and ageing offenders serving sentences for historical crime—creates a nightmare.
However, there is so much more that the Scottish National Party Government could have done. Numerous solutions from a wide variety of sources are being put forward. The Scottish Prison Service is clearly understaffed and underresourced. One of the main reasons that prisoners have appointments for substance misuse issues cancelled is a lack of staff cover. There is also an inconsistent approach to things such as peer groups, which have been shown to work in various other support services. Those things will never improve unless funding improves.
Staff representatives have also come forward with ideas such as anti-drone fences around jails, which would stop a major carrier of contraband. Perhaps the SNP Government could break the habit of a lifetime and start working with the United Kingdom Government to seek nationwide solutions to the problems. The Prison Officers Association has been clear that many of these things are not being pursued “because of funding constraints.”
The Scottish Government has not listened to the people who know best, and its attitude has been lax and complacent. That is why we are where we are today. The Government must urgently restore control in Scotland’s prisons or the whole of society will continue to pay a heavy price.