Prison block underused due to staff shortages

Finding the necessary staffing levels to fully utilise accommodation at HMP Grampian would help ease overcrowding elsewhere in Scotland’s jails, according to prisons inspectors.

The jail at Peterhead, which is capable of housing 500 inmates, opened in 2014, replacing two older prisons, HMP Peterhead and HMP Aberdeen.

But the prison’s Cruden Hall block, which can house up to 78 inmates, was lying empty during an inspection conducted earlier this year.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said 25 of the places had now been filled, and it welcomed a number of positive findings from the inspection.

A report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) said improved staffing levels at the jail and young offenders institution should be a priority.

It called on the Scottish Prison Service to help achieve the staffing level necessary to reopen the unused accommodation in Cruden Hall.

"This would ease overcrowding pressures across the prison estate and reduce the need for prisoners to share cells designed for one person or sleep on mattresses on the floor, as regrettably happened earlier in the year," the report said.

Stephen Sandham, the interim chief inspector of prisons for Scotland, said overall the findings of the inspection were "pretty good".

“We found 23 examples of good practice, these are things that we think that HMP Grampian is doing particularly well, and which really the rest of the prison service could take a look at and copy," he told BBC Scotland News.

“Overall, we have nine standards - they got satisfactory for five, and four that were generally acceptable, which means a little bit of room for improvement, but by no means anything to worry about."

He described the Cruden Hall block as "one of the best bits of accommodation anywhere in the prison estate".

Mr Sandham said: "At the time of our inspection, Cruden Hall was lying empty.

“The prison system as a whole was very overcrowded, as it is today, and therefore it was really strange and frustrating to us that such a good piece of accommodation wasn’t being properly used.

“I am absolutely delighted to say that the prison has responded very swiftly and promptly to that.

"They have already got one level of Cruden Hall open, and they have plans to open the rest of it."

He explained: "You can’t open up any bit of accommodation unless you have enough staff to do it safely and responsibly.

“To be fair again to the Scottish Prison Service as a whole, they have provided a particular drive, particular incentives, to try and encourage people to move up from the central belt and support the team here at Grampian.

“They have also done their local recruitment campaign here, targeting ways of getting more people in locally, and that’s also been successful."

“They’re not exactly where they need to be, but they’re in a much better place.

"We’ve got 10 prisons in Scotland that are overcrowded to a tune of 750 prisoners - taking 750 prisoners more than those prisons are really designed to hold."

He said filling Cruden Hall would be a "step forward" but on its own it was "not going to solve the problem".

Martin Milne, the deputy governor of HMP Grampian, described it as "quite a positive" report, which he said was "really heartening".

He said: "We acknowledge that there are some areas that we need to work on, to try to improve on.

"We are getting support from HQ to look at a temporary transfer scheme to try and transfer some officers to Grampian, so we will be able to open Cruden Hall fully in the near future."

A spokesperson for the Scottish Prison Service said the report had highlighted HMP and YOI Grampian as a forward-looking prison, with many areas of good practice and some of the best accommodation in Scotland's prison estate.

“Work is already under way to address many of the recommendations made," the spokesperson added.

"Cruden Hall has been re-opened as part of our ongoing work maximise our use of all available space across our establishments in response to the population pressures our staff have been managing for several months.”

Justice Secretary Angela Constance also pointed out many positives from the report including the "excellent person-centred" work of the Outreach Team.

She accepted there was some room for improvement, and said the prison service would respond to all the recommendations.

She added: "We have increased investment in our vital prison service by 10% to £436.5m in 2024/25 to enable SPS to continue to provide a safe and secure prison estate."