Scotland’s new £1bn super-prison will be too small to solve an overcrowding crisis despite costing the same to build as a five-star Dubai hotel, Anas Sarwar has warned.
The Scottish Labour leader published an analysis showing HMP Glasgow will have 357 more places than HMP Barlinnie, the Victorian jail it is replacing.
A further £209m is being spent on the new HMP Highland, which will provide 107 more prisoners than the design capacity of Inverness Prison.
The analysis said the two new prisons will increase overall capacity in Scotland’s jails to 8,269 but Mr. Sarwar warned this was not enough to house the country’s inmates.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) disclosed last week that the population had hit a record high of 8,430, with prison officers warning the situation had reached “crisis point”.
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‘Not fit for purpose’
Mr. Sarwar said this showed HMP Glasgow was not “fit for purpose” despite it costing the same to build as “the five-star Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, one of the most luxurious hotels in the world”.
Angela Constance, the SNP Justice Secretary, recently disclosed that 840 prisoners were to be freed early between this month and April to ease chronic overcrowding – in addition to 477 who were freed in emergency releases in the summer last year.
More than 300 inmates, half of whom were serving sentences for violent crimes, were then freed in February and March this year. However, the prison population quickly bounced back.
Ms. Constance also disclosed in February that the cost of HMP Glasgow had surged from its original estimate of £100m to around £1bn.
The SPS has described the new jail as having more in common with a school or college campus than with a 19th-century prison.
Jail cell halls have been renamed as houseblocks and inmates will be referred to as residents. Amphitheatre-style steps will adorn the front of the main building.
The prison will feature an orchard, woodlands, grassy meadows, hedgerows, courtyards, community action spaces, areas for horticulture, walking routes and health and wellbeing gardens.
Although plans for 300 special bricks with holes for endangered swifts to live in were dropped, there will be bird nesting boxes that owls can use.
There will also be a community café for people visiting the prison and gardens where they can sit, while play equipment will be provided for the visiting children of inmates.
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‘A mess of the SNP’s making’
Unveiling the analysis, Mr. Sarwar said: “These alarming figures show that despite the eye-watering cost of this new facility, it will not even be fit for purpose by the time it has been completed, with Scotland’s prison population already at a record high.
“That means taxpayers will be paying well over the odds for a prison that was supposed to cost £100m, and which will not even fix the crisis in our prisons estate, with staff warning that they are at a ‘crisis point’.”
He added: “This is a mess entirely of the SNP’s own making. Scots are having to foot the bill for the SNP’s financial incompetence, with ministers out of ideas for getting on top of this dire situation.”
Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory leader, said the SNP’s emergency releases had “essentially ripped up” the sentences handed down by judges.
He told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “Frankly, I cannot believe how little outrage there is over the situation we are now in.
“The SNP Scottish Government has been wholly in charge of Scotland’s justice system for almost two decades. They’ve failed to build the prison capacity the country needs.”
Sara Snell, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, told the same programme: “There either needs to be a decision to make more prison places and give up on that choice to keep the prison population low and accept that sentencing practice is going to rise.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Replacing HMP Barlinnie is essential for long-term sustainability of the prison estate in Scotland.
“HMP Glasgow will add 357 places to the overall estate, transform how prisoners are rehabilitated, improve staff working conditions and generate up to £450m worth of economic benefits, including jobs and contracts for businesses in Scotland.”
An SPS spokesman said: “HMP Glasgow will deliver fit-for-purpose, safe and secure accommodation, and have a transformative impact in how we support and rehabilitate people.
“However, we are managing an extremely high and complex population which is having an increasingly destabilising impact on establishments across Scotland, and this requires action to be taken now.”
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