Scottish prison boss says 'we can't take any more'

The head of the Scottish Prison Service has said the jails are too full and she may soon have to say "enough is enough, we cannot take any more".

Teresa Medhurst told BBC Disclosure prisons were reaching a "tipping point" and emergency powers could be needed to release inmates early.

She said if numbers continued to rise, drastic measures could be needed as soon as next month.

The prison boss said "all options would need to be on the table".

There are currently about 8,000 people behind bars in Scotland but that is projected to rise to 8,700 this year.

Ms Medhurst said that if the numbers went above 8,500 then the Scottish government would have to consider releasing hundreds of prisoners with no restrictions placed on them like it did during Covid.

"If I have to say enough is enough then it is because we are at a tipping point," she said.

"We cannot take any more. Prisons become very unsafe. The atmosphere, the tension, the volatility increases. Levels of violence increase, levels of self-harm increase."

The prison chief said the prison service was looking to double the number of inmates released early on electronic tags to reduce numbers - and considering pre-fab housing blocks to increase capacity.

She also said Police Scotland was being asked to look at how it could divert more people away from court and efforts were being made to tackle the backlog in prisoners on remand.

The number of people in prison awaiting trial in Scotland has increased to record levels and almost a quarter of inmates have not been convicted.

This is one of the reasons the overall population is rising.

David Gray is in HMP Perth on remand, awaiting trial, and said overcrowding and mental health problems were a bad combination.

"They just don't have the numbers or manpower to deal with the scale of the problem in here," he said.

"Another part of it as well is toxic masculinity where men, especially the kind of men in here, don't want to talk about their problems.

"It's a bad mix, services not being there if people do want to talk, and ones who just don't want to in general. Combined with drug use."

Ms Medhurst told Disclosure: "At the moment I'm confident that we can manage between now and the spring time."

But she said projections for March-April made her "less comfortable" that the service could cope.

To see the impact of overcrowding we were allowed unprecedented access to film in HMP Perth for five days,

Over the past 20 years I've been into many of Scotland's prisons as a journalist but the access is usually highly restricted.

For this programme, I was allowed into every part of the prison and much of the week was spent walking about the halls talking to prisoners - many of whom have not been convicted and are awaiting trial.

Residential manager and prison officer Craig Stewart was one of those who escorted me around the jail, Scotland's oldest, which still uses halls built by French prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars.

The ratio of staff to prisoners on the halls is about one officer to 23 prisoners.

Officers and inmates tell us hyper-vigilance is a necessary part of everyday survival.

During recreation time all the men are out of their cells.

While walking around C hall with Officer Stewart, there were 42 men, some getting showered or playing table tennis and pool.

Officer Stewart explains that this particular hall has every type of prisoner from petty thieves to serious organised criminals and murderers.

My camera operator, producers and all the other officers were behind a grill gate at the far end of the hall about 50m away as we walked around the hall.

The mood was calm but Officer Stewart says it can turn to violence with the "flick of a switch" and for just a moment, I got a sense of how frightening and volatile it can be.

The most startling thing is the constant noise of the place and how every person seems less menacing and more human than you would ever imagine if you read what they had done in the past.

Many of them speak of remorse and wanting to make amends.

Chris Martin is one of those who says he wants to leave his mistakes behind him.

He started doing heroin when he was 15 and has been in prison more than 30 times.

He has gone through recovery in HMP Perth and is getting out soon.

"I'm getting a job. I want to start a family," he said.

"That is living to me. That is life."

"I want to just be able to live a normal lifestyle."

Brian Kinloch is in HMP Perth remand awaiting trial. He was one of the 662 prisoners in Perth when we went in. The prison capacity is 630.

He grew up in care and has seen the impact of self-harm and suicide during his time here.

"Since I've been in I've been trying to access mental health which has been very difficult. It'll be a seven-month waiting list," he told the BBC.

"It's difficult for most people. There was a suicide just there. A young boy, 24-year-old. This is more like a mental health facility than a prison. Like I said, the boy down there didn't have seven months in him."

Perth & Kinross Health & Social Care Partnership said Brian was offered mental health input but disengaged with services.

It said the current waiting times for routine mental health appointments could be up to seven months. Urgent patients are seen within 24 hours.

Prisons On The Brink is available here on BBC iplayer.

Lucy Adams investigates the impact of overcrowding, drugs and suicides on inmates and staff, and asks whether our crumbling prison estate can cope much longer.

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK Only) or watch on BBC One Scotland at 20:00 on Monday 5 February.

Prof Sarah Armstrong at the University of Glasgow published figures at the end of 2022 showing Scotland has a significantly higher rate of suicides and drug deaths in jail than England and Wales.

Last year she found there were 41 deaths in Scottish prisons.

"I do feel like the state of the prison system right now at this moment is not safe," she said. "Over the last three years there have been suicides in every single prison within Scotland, every single one. That's unusual. I mean, that is not something to be proud of."

Figures obtained by BBC Disclosure show self-harm in Scottish prisons is up by almost 40% in the past year - from 587 incidents to 818.

Ms Medhurst said that was because of growing tensions as a result of overcrowding.

Inside Perth prison, we met Kieran Wallace in a cell that was built in the early 1800s which he shared with another inmate. Kieran is on remand, awaiting trial.

"It would be hard enough for one person, never mind two," he said.

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture says that cells shared by prisoners need to be above 8m² so they are not inhuman and degrading.

Kieran's cell is less than 7m² and he spends 19 hours a day locked inside it with another prisoner.

Andy Hodge, the governor at Perth, said: "The pressure of population is forcing us to put more people into one room. That's a real stretch. Two adult men into a room where you've got one TV, one kettle, tensions start to build, people start to fall out.

"Violence amongst the residents starts to go up."

He said there was contingency planning which could see the Scottish government beginning an early release scheme if the numbers get too high.

Kate Wallace, the head of Victim Support Scotland, said inmates were reoffending when they leave prison because many of them were not managing to get onto rehabilitation programmes.

BBC Disclosure has found there are 698 prisoners currently on a waiting list.

"Victims overwhelmingly tell us that the most important thing," she said.

She said rehabilitation was vital to prevent offenders creating more victims when they come out of prison.

Justice Secretary Angela Constance said ministers were looking at contingency measures and investing in community sentences to try to reduce the prison population.

She said: "I would very much accept that as a consequence of a rising prison population, that that has an impact on progression, it has an impact on rehabilitation. And that is why addressing a rising prison population is also a matter of community safety."

Additional reporting by Katie McEvinney and Mona McAlinden.

Prisons On The Brink will be on BBC One Scotland at 8pm on Monday 5 February and is available here on BBC iplayer.