Modernist mansion? No, new women’s jail!
THIS artist’s impression would not look out of place in a brochure for a stylish new housing complex.
Yet the image actually depicts Scotland’s new £54 million women’s prison.
The 80-bed unit is set to replace Scotland’s only women’s jail – Cornton Vale in Stirling – by 2022.
But with its landscaped gardens and limited visible security, it is far removed from the traditional image of a gloomy Victorian jail with bars on the windows and surrounded by barbed wire fencing.
New drawings of the state-of-theart facility, published by the Scottish Prison Service last week, show a more open set-up for Scotland’s female offenders.
It is hoped the less threatening environment will allow for a more ‘trauma informed’ approach to rehabilitating women. While ‘incarcerated’, inmates will be encouraged to focus on educational and vocational training to help them get jobs when they are released.
Prisoners will also be given space to address issues related to alcohol, drugs, mental health or domestic abuse. They will be allowed regular visits from family members and – if it all gets too much – can visit an in-house spiritual retreat for some alone time.
A second phase will see a ‘retreat’ and multi-faith area constructed, it has been reported. Although there will be security fencing installed, it will not be as immediately visible as at other prisons.
In 2015, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson announced that Scotland was adopting a new more encouraging and inclusive system for female offenders in custody.
The move followed a report into how best to deal with female offenders by former Lord Advocate Dame Elish Angiolini. She recommended the closure of Cornton Vale, calling it ‘a miserable place’ where some prisoners live in ‘antediluvian and appalling’ conditions.
Meanwhile, the overhaul of the women’s estate will also see five new Community Custody Units (CCUs) built across the country, including in Glasgow and Dundee. Each will hold up to 20 offenders.
One former prison chief, Rhona Hotchkiss, said the units would ‘not look like prisons’ but that there would be ‘optimum security conditions for their individual needs, risks and strengths’.
Both are expected to be completed in 2021. Three other CCUs are set to be built, but their locations have not been revealed yet.
The SPS declined to comment.