Prisons

The Scottish Liberal Democrats justice have marked 1,000 days since Scotland's prison suicide strategy expired by revealing that in the last three years there have been more than 2,300 self-harm incidents in Scottish prisons. A freedom of information request submitted by the party has revealed 2,341

Older prisoners in England and Wales could be held in secure social care in the community to account for their specific health needs, a landmark new report has suggested. The report by Dr Jayne Price, published today by the Prison Reform Trust, calls on the Ministry of Justice to publish a national

Under-18s are no longer being detained in young offenders' institutions anywhere in Scotland. The remaining children previously detained in YOI Polmont have been moved into secure care settings, and no regulations which came into force last week provide for no new admissions of children under 18 to

English prisons are virtually full, according to new figures showing fewer than 100 places now left across the male prison estate. According to the BBC, there were a record 84,596 inmates in the male prison estate as of Friday 23 August.

Prisoner transfer firm GEOAmey was responsible for inmates arriving to court late more than 14,000 times in the six months to last September, new figures show. As a result, there were 1,516 delays to court proceedings due to late arrivals or failures to bring prisoners to courtrooms. In addition, th

The Scottish Prison Service has been urged to stop routine body-searching of female inmates following an inspection of a new £85 million “therapeutic” jail. Chief inspector of prisons for Scotland, Wendy Sinclair-Gieben, made the recommendation after an inspection of the female pri

Overcrowding in prisons is preventing the rehabilitation of offenders in Scotland, the head of inspections has warned. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, Wendy Sinclair-Gieben, called on the Scottish government to consider “radical justice options” to ease the pressure on prison

Deaths in custody, segregation and mental health are among the areas of concern in prisons and forensic mental health settings in Scotland, according to a new report. The Scottish Human Rights Commission and UK National Preventive Mechanism joint report concludes that little progress has been made a

The family of a prisoner who died in prison has raised a court action against the Scottish Prison Service, Police Scotland and the Crown Office. Allan Marshall died in March 2015 at the age of 30, following restraint by a total of 17 prison officers in HMP Edinburgh (Saughton). Mr Marshall expe

Individuals could spend more time under community supervision as part of their prison sentence, a consultation has proposed. Views are being sought on changing the point of release under licence conditions for people serving a custodial sentence of four years or more, which would "provide a more man

The Scottish Parliament has approved the early release of some short-term prisoners to address the impact of a recent rapid rise in the prison population. Under current modelling, based on the criteria set out in the regulations approved by Parliament, around 514 eligible prisoners will be released

Holyrood's Public Audit Committee has called for urgent action and long-term strategy to address concerns with Scotland’s prisons services in a new report. The committee’s report into the Scottish Prison Service highlights a number of issues and calls for both urgent and long-term action

Scotland had a prisoner suicide far above the European average in 2022, the Council of Europe annual penal statistics show. In 2022 Scotland reported a suicide rate of 18.9 per 10,000 inmates; this compares to 9.3 suicides per 10,000 inmates in England & Wales and a European median rate of 5.3 &

The Scottish Parliament will be asked to approve the emergency release of some short-term prisoners to address the impacts of a rapid rise in the prison population. The legislation was announced to Parliament earlier this month by the Justice Secretary as an emergency response. If the regulations ar

Scotland's prison population has reached its highest since 2020. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) confirmed the new figure was 8,100 as of yesterday.