Women’s prisons fill up amid space cuts

PRISONS are running out of room for female inmates after moves to lock up fewer women, the jails watchdog has warned.

Ministers are trying to reduce the number of prison places for women from the current total of 369 to 230.

This will pave the way for more attempts to ‘divert’ women through community service and other soft-touch schemes.

But inspectors at Cornton Vale prison and young offenders’ institution in Stirling, which has been reduced in size, with more than 100 inmates moved to HMP Polmont in Falkirk, found female criminals forced to share cells and toilet facilities with other prisoners.

The inspectors’ reported that some women felt ‘downgraded’ by no longer having a cell to themselves. But prison staff insisted that since the move they could now give a more professional service.

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘The Government’s handling of this project has been a shambles and it needs to act before the situation deteriorates.’

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said the female population in prison has fallen from about 500 five years ago and further reductions were anticipated.