Despite coping with a high occupancy level, the governor of Perth Prison feels staff at the revamped building can deal with any “heightened risk” and dismisses the possibility of a riot taking place there.
Mike Inglis has told The Courier there is not a “powder keg” situation at Perth Prison and that he feels with a present prisoner figure of 665 he can deliver a “constructive regime”, while maintaining a “safe and secure” prison.
Perth Prison’s available design capacity the capacity when a prison is built is 633, but the service agreement figure under which the prison normally operates is 693.
Mr Inglis said that the 60 extra spaces are a contingency measure. If there are extra spaces, there is extra funding to be spent on prisoners’ clothing, food and other items.
The Perth Prison governor said he feels staff at the prison, which has undergone an £82.1 million refurbishment, can cope with the present number of inmates.
He explained: “Today we are sitting at 665.
“At 665, I am satisfied we can deliver a constructive regime, whilst maintaining a safe and secure prison.
“Ultimately, if the number continues to rise, we need to take account of heightened risk by ensuring equity of access to visits and other regime areas.
“I don’t like the term riot, but I know we manage any incidence of violence and there is a good staff/prisoner relationship in Perth Prison.”
He continued: “Perth Prison is a local prison and as such we are committed to managing all prisoners sent to us by the courts, and then try to ensure we make a difference to those prisoners by encouraging them to make a positive commitment to starting their recovery journey in partnership with our wider justice colleagues.
“We ultimately manage the risks of heightened tension by ensuring we have a safe and secure regime.”
Mr Inglis emphasised that the situation at Perth Prison is “not a powder keg”, despite a high number of inmates, and stated that, even if the number reached the limit, he would still be able to deliver a “minimal entitlement” of visits to prisoners.
“Even if the figure were to rise to 700, we would still do our best to give prisoners their minimum of two visits per calendar month,” he added.
Figures supplied by the Scottish Prison Service show several prisons in the country have been within their available design capacity this past week.
Perth fared one of the worst of these, being actually over the limit of the available design capacity, housing 665 inmates on January 28.
Cornton Vale has an available design capacity of 309 and had 298 prisoners as of January 28. Polmont Young Offenders Institute (PYI) has a design capacity of 760 and was well within that, with 592 prisoners on January 28. Edinburgh has a design capacity of 870 prisoners and it had 865 inmates on the same date. The overall available design capacity for prisons in Scotland is 7,820 and was standing at 7,743 on January 28.