News In Focus
17 May 2005
Prisons fail inmates, says inspector
A third of Scottish prisons fail to manage long-term inmates properly, according to a new report.
Scotland’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, Andrew McLellan, said he had serious questions about sentence management in at least five prison inspections in the last year.
His comments come in a report on conditions at Greenock Prison where he said that arrangements for sentence management were inconsistent.
The report also found the prison was much less overcrowded than it had been a few months ago but with still had 298 prisoners in a jail designed for 254.
Mr McLellan said: "When prisons are overcrowded, sentence management is much more difficult to manage. But it is in the interests of prisoners and of public safety that sentence management is carried out well. Where this does not happen, as appears to be the case in one third of Scottish prisons, both prisoners and public safety may be harmed."