Prison inspectors' report calls for more treatment programmes
Insufficient treatment programmes for prisoners serving four years or less mean that they are at risk of being released without completing programmes designed to reduce reoffending, according to the latest annual report from HM Inspector of Prisons in Scotland.
The report, for 2017-18, finds it "encouraging" that its inspectors consistently saw positive relationships and interactions between staff and prisoners, and recognises "impressive and varied" work to support prisoners in maintaining good family relationships, particularly with their children – though not all prisons achieved the same quality in the latter respect. It also hopes that the introduction of a prison officers' professionalisation programme will help achieve the desired consistency and quality in the practice of personal officers to prisoners.
Throughcare support, and healthcare, both feature among the "encouraging observations", including innovative practices to give patients quicker access to healthcare. While inspectors' reports have consistently raised concerns around inadequate health and social care in prison, the creation by the Scottish Government of a Health & Justice Collaboration Board and a work stream focused on prisoner healthcare "has the potential to impact positively on the outcomes of those who are involved in the criminal justice system, many of whom come from the areas of greatest deprivation and health inequalities".
Healthcare does also remain a concern, however, in that staffing levels in health centres are sometime inadequate, with high staff turnover, and there are unsatisfactory variations in prescribing practices.
Other concerns include that the two oldest prisons, Inverness and Greenock, do not meet modern standards. "SPS management must develop plans to address the ongoing deterioration of the current buildings in HMP Greenock, or finalise their plans and confirm a date for the replacement."
The availability of treatment programmes is also a concern for long term and life prisoners. "Increasingly, we find that a significant number of prisoners are not able to progress appropriately through their sentence due to a lack of availability of, or capacity within, treatment programmes. There are lengthy waiting lists for many key programmes, which means that a substantial number of prisoners are not able to complete the required programmes for them to be considered for parole. Of perhaps greater concern is that prisoners are at risk of being released into the community without having completed treatment programmes designed to reduce future reoffending."
However, the report welcomes a recent announcement that the prison service is moving to a national waiting list for all offending behaviour programmes, and hopes this will have positive effects.
As for "strategic challenges", the report notes that the proportion of remand prisoners at the end of the year was more than 15%, which has reduced but is "still high", especially as many do not receive a custodial sentence after trial. "We support the [Government's] exploration of ways to reduce the use of remand. In particular, we support the proposals in the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Bill to permit greater use of electronic monitoring to allow more alleged offenders to be granted bail whilst they await trial... It is the HMCIPS view that remand should only be used in exceptional cases, where it is absolutely necessary to protect the public from serious harm or where there is clear evidence of a flight risk."
The position of women in prison has improved as they transfer from Cornton Vale to Polmont, but there are still many more held in custody than the new female custodial estate will provide places for (380 as against 230).
Other strategic issues involve the reported increase in the use of novel psychoactive substances, and the growing number of older prisoners.