16/4/2008Barlinnie - Time For A Replacement
Barlinnie is Scotland's biggest jail but even its governor admits he dreams of the day it is knocked down and replaced by a modern, purpose-built prison.
The prison, built in the 1880s, is at least 50% overcrowded.
And governor Bill McKinlay said: "I have often said that Barlinnie should be knocked down and rebuilt.
"Overcrowding is not acceptable when we have two people to a cell that was built in the 19th century for one person."
Chief prisons inspector Dr Andrew McLellan warned that our entire system is heading towards crisis.
Dr McLellan claimed it is failing inmates, staff and the public  and says an extra 26 new jails would need to be built each year to keep pace with current trends.
He said: "Overcrowded jails means Scotland is less safe. For the sake of us all, we need to make sure overcrowding is defeated."
Barlinnie was designed for 1018 prisoners. When the Evening Times was there, the total number of inmates was
1528, with possibly another 50 due to arrive from the courts that night.
Overcrowding means prisoners, some of whom are on remand and haven't actually been convicted of anything, have to share cells, and spend too much time locked in them.
It also means staff are hard-pressed to devote one-on-one time with them.
All the halls have been refurbished in recent years, at a cost of several millions, but Barlinnie is showing its age.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill told the Evening Times: "Barlinnie has served us well but we can review that in due course. The priority in the west of Scotland is to get a new jail at Bishopbriggs built."
But what is life really like at Barlinnie?
Some of the prisoners are, in the words of Mr MacAskill, who visited Barlinnie recently, "bad and dangerous." Many others are "sad and tragic."
What they would all agree on is that Barlinnie has too many prisoners. But even 116 years ago, when the place was in its infancy, an extra hall had to be added and the prison area extended, to ease the strain on the fourexisting halls.
Staff say that corners are already having to be cut in the jail's processes and procedures.
"The creaks and groans are starting to show," said operations manager Arshaq Ahmad.
Mr MacAskill added: "The staff are doing an excellent job in difficult circumstances with some difficult people.
"If we are to allow them to do their proper job, to make sure people are punished but rehabilitated, and dangerous and serious criminals are incarcerated, we cannot continue to have them simply as a receptacle for people with minor problems committing minor offences.
"Prison is expensive and has a specific role for dangerous and serious offenders. It cannot be a receptacle for drink, drugs, and problems of deprivation."
Mr MacAskill said prison governors and staff were "manfully seeking to cope but we have to lighten the load.
He added: "We have to allow them to concentrate on the serious offenders, t tackle drugs and mobile phones in prison, to make sure people do not operate crime syndicates from their cells, and to ensure people who are in prison actually do some hard work and get lessons to rehabilitate them.
"None of that can be done if they're awash with ever more petty offenders."
Mr MacAskill is awaiting the results of former First Minister Henry McLeish's Prisons Commission, which is looking into possible solutions to the record overcrowding.
Mr McLeish has already said more use should be made of non-custodial sentences for low-risk offenders, with punishments such as probation orders, electronic tagging, community service, supervised attendance orders and drug treatment testing orders being carried out in the community.
Meanwhile, Mr MacAskill has already pushed through plans to extend early release under home detention curfews. And more people are to be given community service rather than being sent to prison.
The minister said: "We've committed to three new prisons within nine months of taking office, the neglect is such that existing prisons are crumbling in some instances and are not fit for purpose.
"First of all, Addiewell [a private facility at West Lothian] comes on stream next January. Bishopbriggs is going out to tender shortly, and there will be a new prison in the north-east.
"Obviously, we have to get those three delivered. After that, we will see what funds are available and what the requirements are. There are already improvements being made to some prisons."
A spokesman for the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Overcrowding is not just about there being three to a cell that should hold two. It's about locking up people who are mentally ill or people whose offending is driven by drug or alcohol problems.
"So rather than building new prisons or using prisons past their use-by date, we should be making sure the use of prisons is smarter. Only those who have to be there should be there."
Despite its great age, Barlinnie has moved with the times in its services to prisoners.
The First Night centre has been praised for the sensitive way it deals with new arrivals, many of whom are terrified to find themselves there.
Specialist services address prisoners' addiction, physical or mental health problems. And if there's a bigger methadone-dispensing clinic anywhere in Europe, the Bar-L staff would love to know about it.
Other services help prepare prisoners for a life outside.
All the time, the staff have to be on their guard against drugs and mobile phones being smuggled in. Many visitors try to smuggle in heroin, and some succeed.
As you wander around the place, you realise what McKinlay means when he says that Barlinnie, stripped of the usual cliches that surround it is "like a world in miniature."
A creaking, elderly, overcrowded world, but one that, despite it all,continues to function.
Barlinnie's past is a colourful one. Ten murderers were hanged there, in the gallows that once stood in D Hall. The most infamous of them was serial killer Peter Manuel, who met his death in Barlinnie in July 1958.
The late Paddy Meehan, a safebreaker, once said the gallows were primitive and made a terrific bang when used.
Barlinnie has had the acquaintance of everyone from Meehan to Paul Ferris; from Tommy Sheridan to Eric Cullen, the actor, and Duncan Ferguson, the one-time Rangers star.
It was here that convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi arrived by helicopter to get his first taste of the Scottish penal system.
And it was here that the Special Unit, one of the most adventurous experiments ever undertaken in a Scottish prison, was located.
Before it shut in 1995, it helped reform many of Scotland's most volatile prisoners. Its inmates included Jimmy Boyle and TC Campbell.
Key dates in Barlinnie's history
l 1879: Land bought from Barlinnie Farm Estate for £9,750.
l 1880: Building work begins.
l 1882: A Hall commissioned on July 25. First three prisoners arrive on August 15.
l 1883: B Hall commissioned in 1883, followed by C Hall in 1887 and D Hall in 1892.
l 1896: E Hall complete, bringing total capacity to around 900.
l 1955: Female block built due to closure of Duke Street female prison.
l 1958: Peter Manuel becomes one of the last men to be hanged at Barlinnie. Buried on site.
l 1972: Special Unit set up in female block, lasts until 1994. It gains worldwide fame for its experimental treatment of dangerous prisoners, including Jimmy Boyle.
l 1983: Segregation Unit complete.
l 1997: £5m refurbishment of D Hall complete. Other halls refurbished later.
l 2000: Prisoner lodged compensation claim with the High Court for being unlawfully detained in 'appalling' remand conditions in C Hall.
l 2001: Bill McKinlay becomes Barlinnie's 20th governor.
l 2001: Remand prisoner Robert Napier successfully claims slopping-out was 'inhumane and degrading', and was later awarded £2450.
l 2002: Slopping-out ends after 122 years.
l 2002: Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Moh-med Al Megrahi arrived at Barlinnie by helicopter after first appeal against his 20-year sentence failed. Nelson Mandela later visited him.
l 2005: Al-Megrahi moved to
lower-security Greenock prison.
l 2006: First Night Centre set up in E Hall.
Source: Scottish Prison Service
website, www.sps.gov.uk