Overcrowded Barlinnie prison in ‘wretchedly poor state’

Inspectors have described Scotland’s largest prison as being in a “wretchedly poor state” while operating at 30% over capacity.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) said it “strongly urged” the Scottish government to do more to tackle the “fundamental problem” of overcrowding at HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow.

The 143-year-old jail was found to be housing nearly 1,400 prisoners, when it was designed for just 987.

The Scottish government has committed to building a new prison to replace Barlinnie on the outskirts of Glasgow. It is due to be competed in 2028 at a cost nearly near £1bn.

A week-long HMIPS inspection in November found nearly two thirds of prisoners were sharing cells designed to hold only one person.

Its newly-published review said this could also account for a pre-inspection survey finding a high number of prisoners complaining about the behaviour of staff.

The survey suggested more than half of prisoners had witnessed staff “abusing, bullying, threatening or assaulting” another prisoner, which HMIPS described as a “serious cause for concern”.

In a bid to tackle overcrowding, MSPs passed legislation in November 2024 so that prisoners sentenced to less than four years are released after serving 40% of their sentence.

HMIPS said in its report: “The need for a replacement prison through the planned new HMP Glasgow remains overwhelming and urgent.

“The other deeply concerning factor was the unacceptable level of overcrowding.

“Overcrowding makes it harder to access basic entitlements. It also makes it harder for staff to build and retain positive relationships, and the additional daily transactional work in dealing with more prisoners than a prison is designed to accommodate can put a strain on services and relationships.”

Inspectors did not personally witness any unacceptable behaviour, the report said.

In fact, it said they had observed staff engaging prisoners in “cheerful but respectful light-hearted banter”.

But the results were worse than for other closed prisons and gave “serious cause for concern”.

Barlinnie governor Michael Stoney welcomed the report which he said recognised the professionalism of all the staff who work in the prison.

He said: “They all work really hard to do the best they can, despite the obstacles of the infrastructure in the old buildings.

“On staff-prisoner relationships, we would ask anyone to walk around the prison on any given day and they would see how friendly, how engaging, how positive these professional-bounded relationships are.”

Mr Stoney said he was “very surprised” with the survey results about prisoners witnessing abuse or bullying by staff.

“It’s not something I recognise or something visitors recognise when they go round the prison,” he said.

The governor said any complaints may be down to tough anti-drugs initiatives which have been introduced in Barlinnie.

The Scottish government has been approached for comment.