MEASURING just 13ft by 8ft, the tiny room was built to house one or maybe two prisoners at the turn of the 20th century.
Today, the cramped space, with the addition of a toilet and small sink, is still being shared by two inmates. Occasionally a mattress is put on the concrete floor to accommodate a third.
Men can spend 22 hours a day here, locked up together, even
at meal times when the absence of a table has them balancing trays of food on their knees.
Inverness Prison is the smallest of Scotland's 16 jails, but is regularly among the top three in the overcrowding league.
It is regarded as safe, but Dr Andrew McLellan, chief inspector of prisons, questioned how long that situation could remain at Inverness and across the country, given the increasing pressure of overcrowding.
Dr McLellan made the first unannounced prison visit in November to Inverness, designed to hold 104 but with a prisoner population of 148.
In his report, published today, he says three prisoners sometimes have to share a cell and others have been locked in rooms without natural light or ventilation.
"It is not possible for the prison to provide decent living conditions when it is required to hold so many prisoners, but even with lower numbers some of the living accommodation could never be acceptable," he said.
Dr McLellan said overcrowding was a national problem, with 8,000 prisoners now packed into jails, and a "dangerous position" was ever nearer.
"The problem is as intense and destructive in Inverness Prison as anywhere in the country," he said. "We are much nearer really dangerous positions in our prisons. I cannot predict if it's going to be next week or next month, but I feel much less confident and sure than I did even a year ago that safety will continue."
Eric Fairbairn, the Inverness governor, said: "If the courts continue to send prisoners to me, I need to continue to hold them."
Prison building 'not enough'THREE new jails are planned in Scotland. Addiewell in West Lothian is under construction, Bishopbriggs is going out to tender and Peterhead is at the planning stage.
But new buildings alone are not the solution, says Scotland's prisons chief. On one night recently the national prison population increased by 1 per cent – 80 inmates. If that rate was to continue, 26 new prisons would be needed in a year, said Dr Andrew McLellan, Scotland's chief inspector of prisons. He added: "We need to find better ways of punishing those who commit relatively minor crimes."
The full article contains 434 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
