Visit (HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont)
Item 2 is on the visit that was made to HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont. A number of members had the opportunity to visit HM YOI Polmont, and I invite Marlyn Glen and Margaret Smith to say a few words about the visit.
As always, the visit was very interesting, but there were a number of differences with the previous occasion. Members of the visitors committee were present, and it was helpful to be able to talk to them. It was interesting to note that the term "YO" for young offenders changes to "YA", as they are called young adults within the institution.
A major concern is about the transitions into and out of Polmont, and in particular about young people—aged 16 and under—coming to Polmont from secure units, sometimes overnight and without much preparation. It seemed that that needed to be looked into.
We were looking at one of the new blocks, the design of which is going to be copied. It was pointed out that if there were individual showers in the cells that would make a huge difference to the day-to-day running of the establishment, although it would not make that big a difference to the design. I felt it important to highlight that in the context of running costs and other cost implications.
Quite a lot of changes were going on at Polmont, which is now the only young offenders institution in the country. There has been quite a large influx of people from elsewhere. On the face of it, the staff at Polmont have coped with that quite well. There has also been the new build block—Iona hall, I think—which, as Marlyn Glen said, is to be a model for elsewhere. Two points came up in that respect. First, Stewart Maxwell made a point about whether one would be able to fight a fire in a particular cell, using the hole in the door. He questioned whether the design was as good as it could be in that respect.
The second point, which was mentioned by Marlyn Glen, was raised by one of the senior prison officers. He said that a large amount of prison officers' time is taken up supervising people going into and out of what is a very small number of showers given the number of people who are housed in the block. Using exactly the same amount of space in the cells, it would be possible for people to have their own showers, which are obviously needed following physical education and recreation. It is worth ensuring that that message gets passed to the Scottish Prison Service. If something can be done in the future to improve the design of cells, that could save a lot of staff time.
I was impressed by the anti-sectarianism work that was being done in the education centre. Our colleagues, Mr Canavan and Mr Gorrie, had already been to Polmont to see that work. The staff had managed to force Rangers fans to sit down and watch Celtic videos, and vice versa. That involved young men who had had serious problems in that respect. It was interesting to see that work.
As one of the senior officers said, people felt that a lot of questions could be asked about secure units and that the secure accommodation in which many of the young people had been held prior to coming to Polmont could do with a little more scrutiny than had been the case in the past. Although they were not specific about it, officers commented that scrutiny seemed constantly to be falling on the Prison Service, which is further on in the process. We heard that there were some issues regarding the transition and handover of young people from secure accommodation and regarding what is being done in secure accommodation.
I would like to put on record our thanks to the staff for their time—and for our very nice lunch. I sat beside a couple of young men who were coming to the end of their term in Polmont. It was very interesting to hear what they had to say, and I would like to thank them in particular for their time.
I thank Marlyn Glen and Margaret Smith for giving us that on-the-spot report. It is our normal practice to send a letter of thanks. We will ensure that that is done on behalf of the members who took part in the visit.