By Bill Heaney
Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP has today revealed that there are more than 2,000 prisoners living in conditions which fall below international standards to prevent inhumane and degrading treatment.
The MSP has urged urged the Justice Secretary Angela Constance, right, to tackle overcrowding and invest in prisoner rehabilitation.
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) state that 4m2 is the minimum standard for an individual’s personal living space in prison cells used for multiple occupancy.
However, a response to a Liberal Democrat parliamentary question found that at least 2,230 prisoners in Scotland live in cells where the conditions fall below that standard.
A separate parliamentary question revealed that a majority of multiple-occupancy prison cells in eight out of Scotland’s 15 publicly owned prison cells fall below the 4m2 standard. This includes HM Young Offenders Institution at Polmont.
The Scottish Government state that the CPT, “have never considered that its cell-size standards should be regarded as absolute”, and that “the majority of our cells that SPS [Scottish Prison Service] need to double up in are 7m2 excluding the toilet area, which means that prisoners in these cells have 3.5m2 living space, which is marginally smaller than the 4m2.”
However, further Liberal Democrat research found that as many as 36 multiple occupancy cells are smaller even than 7m2.
“The problem is so acute that the government’s best justification is that most cells are only ‘marginally smaller’ than the internationally-recognised minimum standards. In a number of cases though, the government are failing even to achieve the low standard that they’ve set themselves here.
“As well as posing threats to staff safety, this overcrowding makes it much harder for prison staff to focus on successful rehabilitation that is key to reducing reoffending.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats want a properly funded justice system that gives hard-pressed prison staff the resources they need. We also need greater use, where appropriate, of robust community sentences that can ease pressure on our prisons and more effectively cut reoffending and make our communities safer.”
