Princess Anne visits inmates at HMP Shotts
Royal visit to prison
The Princess Royal today (Wednesday) will visit the new £ 23m Houldsworth Centre in Wishaw.
And on the same day, she will meet convicts in one of Scotland’s toughtest prisons – HMP Shotts.
Princess Anne will visit the prison as part of being patron of The Butler Trust who recognise good practice by people working in prisons.
She will speak to both prison workers and inmates during her visit.
HMP Shotts is Scotland’s highest security jail and houses many murderers.
In July, a prison officer was left scarred for life after he was slashed across the face at work.
He was brutally attacked by an inmate armed with a blade.
In November, the wife of a prison officer complimented a murderer’s Facebook selfie - which was taken illegally on a mobile phone behind bars - and said his ‘guns are getting bigger’.
Killer Jack Cramb, 24, uses an illegal mobile phone to regularly post topless selfies from his prison cell at Shotts where he is serving a life sentence for the murder of Barry Bradley in 2010.
His boastful Facebook pictures have garnered him something of a female fan base - and a prison officer’s wife joined in and complimented one of the pictures.
The prison was rebuilt in 2012 and is a prison for long-term adult male offenders with a capacity of 553. Shotts also houses the National Integration Centre (NIC) within its boundary.
The NIC holds approximately 60 adult male offenders who are in the initial stages of sentences of eight years or over and prepares them for eventual movement to mainstream prisons.
It provides a supportive regime for those who have been sentenced to life or eight years or over during the first six to nine months of their sentences.