SCOTLAND'S chief inspector of prisons blasts the "dilapidated" state of the country's main jail for sex offenders in a highly critical new report.
Dr Andrew McLellan says chronic underfunding means some inmates at Peterhead jail are being denied work opportunities because crumbling rooms cannot be opened.
Meanwhile, high-risk prisoners are being released without undergoing work to tackle the
causes of their offending. The report says they are also the only ones in the UK who have to slop out.
The decision to build a new jail on the site of Peterhead Prison makes it less likely that money will be invested to improve the situation, Dr McLellan adds.
Inspectors noted it was the only jail in the UK where prisoners had no access to toilets when locked in their cells. They branded this "the worst single feature of prisons in Scotland".
Inspectors found that 30 prisoners who should have been engaged in woodworking workshops had not been there for weeks. Mr McLellan said: "The closure of the workshops can be traced directly to the dilapidated state of the building. This is because the hinges on a gate have rusted through and the gate cannot be opened. A lorry essential to the workshop cannot enter and the workshop cannot operate."
The full article contains 214 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
