Andy Hunstone, Acting Governor, HM Prison Dumfries gave a talk to the Stewartry U3A at the meeting on 24 January entitled “Doing Porridge” covering his experiences as an officer in the Prison Service Scotland. He had joined the prison service in 1991 and worked at various prisons including Shotts and Barlinnie, before coming to Dumfries, four years ago.
The oldest part of HMP Dumfries was built in 1883 and was known then as the Jessiefield prison. There are now 175 prisoners in the prison comprising local and remand prisoners and national high risk prisoners with just over 100 officers. Andy pointed out that within Scotland there are on average 7,800 prisoners, the highest percentage of population in Western Europe. HMP Barlinnie is one of the biggest in the UK, built for 900 prisoners but currently housing an average of 1,400 prisoners.
Throughout his talk, he emphasised the efforts made by the prison service to try to prevent prisoners re-offending, the re-offending rate currently stands at around 42%. Within the prison training is provided so that the men will have some skills which they can employ when they are released. Other activities are designed to develop the prisoner’s self-esteem. Other agencies and community organisations are involved in providing support for prisoner’s families and the prisoners themselves when they are released. Facilities are available for families to visit the prisoners in more comfortable surroundings than previously.
Prisoners now have TVs in their cells which Andy said was controversial when first provided. However, being able to watch TV has resulted in a large reduction in prisoners self-harming and improvement in general behaviour.
The principal reasons for re-offending are addiction to drugs, alcohol misuse and gambling. In addition, most of the prisoners come from deprived areas and many have mental health problems. The Scottish Government is now making moves to try to reduce the level of re-offending by addressing the underlying issues.