Prison inspectors disappointed over bullying

Prison inspectors said it is “disappointing” a Scottish jail has failed to implement a national anti-bullying strategy, despite a recommendation in 2020 to do so.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has a national policy for such initiatives, but HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) said there is “no evidence of any anti-bullying strategy” in Edinburgh Prison.

An HMIPS report on the jail following an inspection in November revealed 31 per cent of prisoners questioned said they had been “abused, bullied, threatened or assaulted by other prisoners”.

As such, inspectors voiced disappointment that the jail had not taken steps to implement a recommendation from its previous inspection in 2020 to set up the Think Twice strategy put in place by the SPS.

HMIPS said senior management at the jail are “faced with some difficult and long-standing challenges in allowing the prison to recover from its very restricted Covid-19 regime”.

It highlighted “high staff vacancies and staff absences” at the prison, with the report going on to note “explicit concerns about activity, time out of cell and the need for tighter assurance on use of force”.

An SPS spokesperson said “work is under way to address many of the points raised in the report ”, adding the organisation has “already seen a significant increase in the number of staff updating their training of control and restraint techniques”.

The spokesperson confirmed: “HMP Edinburgh launched its new Violence Reduction Strategy in January. As well as monthly violence reduction meetings, this includes exploring new approaches to tackling bullying.”