Scots prisons 'bursting at seams' as inmates sharing single cells due to overcrowding crisis

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Scotland’s prisons are “bursting at the seams” with nearly 1,800 prisoners doubling up in cells built for one person.Ten of the country’s prisons are also overcrowded, with Barlinnie operating at 140 per cent capacity.Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur, who unearthed the figures, said: “Overcrowding puts services at risk, threatens staff safety and makes it far more difficult to successfully rehabilitate people.”Campaigners have regularly warned about the human rights and safety implications of crammed prisons.New stats reveal the extent of the crisis.As of July, Addiewell and Dumfries prisons had an average occupancy rate of 103 per cent and 110 per cent.The figures for Edinburgh, Glenochil, Greenock, Inverness and Kilmarnock also exceeded 100 per cent.Low Moss was operating at 102 per cent and the figure for Perth was 107 per cent.

Barlinnie has a design capacity of 987 but had an average occupancy rate of 1,379.Michael Stoney, the Barlinnie governor, said in the summer he feared his own prison is so overcrowded and outdated it risks “catastrophic failure”.He said: "This prison can't last that much longer.

The infrastructure fails consistently.""A lot of my time is just trying to keep the prison functional.Barlinnie will be replaced, but it was reported that a Government update on major infrastructure projects had deleted the timings and costs of the scheme.The chief inspector for Scottish prisons recently warned the number of people in custody is projected to soar in the next year.Wendy Sinclair-Gieben said inmate numbers had fallen during the pandemic, but they were likely to go above 8,000 over the coming year.She said: "Put simply, we send far too many people to prison for the limited accommodation and resourcing