In February 2024 we made a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in order to provide an indication of key topics which currently merit attention:

Deaths in custody

• There are too many people dying in custody in Scotland and that number is increasing. Between 2012 and 2022, 350 people died whilst in prison custody. This is an average of 31.8 deaths per year. Just under half of the 350 deaths were attributed to suicide or were drug-related deaths. The number of deaths in prison custody per year increased between 2012 and 2022, with the highest number of annual deaths recorded in 2021 (53). The number of people dying in prison custody per 1,000 average daily prison population has trebled over the period from 2.12 in 2012 to 6.40 in 2022. Over the last 3 years the number of people dying in prison is higher than for any other 3 year period on record. From September 2020 to 2022 there were 121 deaths in Scottish prisons.

• Since the introduction the Scottish Prison Service’s ‘Talk to Me’ preventative suicide strategy in late 2016, there has been an increase of 42% in prison suicide rates.

• We share the concerns of the Chair of the Oversight of Recommendations of the Independent Review of the Response to Deaths in Prison Custody, who believes that progress of the recommendations of the Independent Review has been far too slow, reflecting a resistance from the Scottish Prison Service to the findings of the review and to the idea that there is a need for change.

• We encourage the Committee to probe the lack of progress in this area.

  Progression

• Independent Prison Monitors (IPMs) continue to receive multiple requests from prisoners regarding perceived barriers to progression to less secure conditions in preparation for release, notably the backlog of offending behaviour programmes; hold-ups in temporary release applications; and concerns related to risk management decisions and integrated case management processes.

• A thematic review by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) is currently underway and is due to be published shortly. Emerging findings indicate that the current system has clear failings and the level of knowledge and expertise in delivering satisfactory and timely prisoner outcomes is patchy and inconsistent.

• If progression processes are ineffective, a situation arises where some prisoners spend longer in prison that required and some are released from prison without adequate preparation for life in the community.

• We encourage the Committee to examine existing practices and any actionable proposals for change.

  Provision of exercise and time in the open air

• HMIPS has found issues in upholding the Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2011 Rule 87: “Exercise and time in the open air – (1) Subject to paragraphs (3) to (8), every prisoner must be given the opportunity to take exercise or, where the weather permits, to spend time in the open air for not less than one hour every day” in its most recent three prison inspections (HMP Edinburgh; HMP Perth: and HMP & YOI Polmont). In its inspection of HMP & YOI Polmont it witnessed that the right under the Mandela Rules to an hour’s exercise in the fresh air every day “was clearly being breached”. This had previously been raised as a concern during a visit from the European Council for the Prevention of Torture in 2019.

• We encourage the Committee to ensure that this basic human right is upheld in all Scottish prisons.

  Use of segregation

• Published in July 2023 HMIPS Thematic Review of Segregation in Scottish Prisons was a highly critical report, highlighting a raft of concerns at an individual and systemic level, with some very troubling findings including serious prisoner mistreatment of an unnamed prison and a high prevalence of mentally unwell prisoners being held in segregation. It also covered the issue of a lack of high secure beds for women in Scotland, linking it to the Independent Forensic Mental Health Review’s strong – still unfulfilled - recommendation that this be actioned within 9 months of its 2021 report. 

• The report followed those of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) on Scotland in 2018 and 2019. Progress since these reports has been limited.

• The National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) Scotland Subgroup has advised, that in its judgement, the concerns that the report raises risk crossing the threshold into Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It reminds that the prohibition of torture is an absolute right for which there can be no derogation or assessment of proportionality.

• We encourage the Committee to ensure that proactive steps are taken to stop, correct and prevent such action.

  Remand

• Scotland remands into pre-trial custody a disproportionately high number of people in comparison to other jurisdictions. Approximately 25% of the current prison population is made up of people who have not been convicted of an offence and are awaiting trial. The cessation of court business during the pandemic and the corresponding court backlog has significantly increased the number of people being held on remand and the length of time for which they are being held.

• 57% of people on remand in Scotland do not go on to be given a prison sentence (the figure is 70% for women). These people are either not found guilty or receive a non-custodial sentence. Prisoners on remand are routinely not provided with structured activities or appropriate health and welfare support. They are released from, often prolonged periods, on remand without any entitlement to a discharge grant as convicted prisoners are.

• New legislation (Bail and Release From Custody (Scotland) Act 2023) seeks to underline that remand should be reserved for offences which are likely to attract a prison sentence on conviction, however, the Head of the Scottish Judiciary (Lord President) publicly expressed a lack of support for the legislation which he believed would have no material effect on court decisions.

• We encourage the Committee to examine the regime and conditions under which remand prisoners are held.

  Prison estate

• Overcrowding is an entrenched issue in Scottish prisons and has been highlighted as a serious issue for many years. 10 of our 17 prisons are operating above their design capacity, with HMP Barlinnie at 135% occupancy. As HMIPS Annual Report 2022-23 advised, “put simply, we send far too many people to prison for the limited accommodation and resourcing available to achieve rehabilitative change”. Cells smaller than the minimum cell sizes as determined by the CPT of 6m2 for 1 person and 8m2 for 2 people (excluding sanitation) are found repeatedly.

• HMIPS has highlighted that the current prison estate does not provide buildings or facilities which allow for any more than “humane containment”. An ageing and increasingly physically and mentally infirm prison population will only exacerbate this.

• Much of the prison estate has been deemed “not fit for purpose”. Plans to replace the most urgently decaying one – HMP Barlinnie – have still not being finalised, despite it being structurally condemned and referred to as a “national disgrace” by the Chief Inspector of Prisons as long ago as 1997. HMP Barlinnie’s Governor-in-Charge recently warned of the potential for “catastrophic infrastructure failure”.

• Estimates of the prison population are extremely worrying, with current projects exceeding 8,500. Reports from the CPT highlighted overcrowding in Scottish prisons as posing risks to human rights and recommended a less purely punitive approach. With overcrowding pressures as they are, 23 hours a day locked in a cell is a norm.

• Serious human rights concerns arise from all of this as access is reduced to essential services such as healthcare, mental health support, education and rehabilitative programmes. Levels of tension, violence and conflict increase and the ability to manage these conflicts and identify those at risk strains prison staff and resources, compromising the safety of both prisoners and staff.

• We encourage the Committee to press for immediate solutions to address the emerging crisis.