Prisoners left with human excrement smeared on cell walls for three days, MSPs told

Prisoners in segregation units are being left with “human excrement” smeared across the walls of their cell for three days at a time, MSPs have heard.

David Linden, deputy convener of the Criminal Justice Committee, said MSPs had learned on a visit to HMP Low Moss about “human excrement smeared across the walls and being cleaned every three days”.

Linda Pollock, chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), said such incidents, which Reform MSP Amanda Bland referred to as a “dirty protest”, had happened in other prisons in Scotland.

Asked if the SPS had complied with the law by keeping prisoners in those conditions for three days, she said: “Yes, that is under the prison rules.

“Quite often, what you will see where there is space is that there are two cells side by side, and somebody can be moved into another cell while the cell is cleaned for them and moved back and forth, and continuously to do that.

“That is the prison rule around three days. That will always be met.

“We would always, always seek to do that better than that though.”

Tory MSP Stephen Kerr said some inmates in the segregation and reintegration unit of HMP Low Moss, near Glasgow, would be better served in a mental health facility.

Earlier in the committee, concerns were raised about the number of inmates in Scotland’s prisons.

Scotland’s justice secretary refused to set a target to reduce the swelling prison numbers.

Neil Gray said such a target would not be “wise” because the courts must have the ability “to incarcerate people who pose a risk to society”.

More than 8,550 inmates are currently held in Scotland’s prisons, well above the design capacity of 7,805, and the Scottish Government has been warned the population could exceed 9,000 next year.

Ministers have previously released hundreds of prisoners early in an attempt to curb overcrowding.

Gray said on Wednesday that new prisons being built in Glasgow and Inverness should add additional capacity.

He told Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee: “I want to make sure that the courts have the capability to incarcerate people who pose a risk to society.

“I won’t apologise for the fact that average sentences have increased. I think that is right that we have sentences matching the seriousness of criminality that we have faced.

“However, I believe that we are substantially beyond our levels of incarceration that we should be at.”

Green MSP Maggie Chapman asked the minister: “If we are not sure what our target is, how do we know whether penal reform is working?”

Gray replied: “We need to prevent people becoming victims in the first place.

“However, we must also have capacity there in the prison system to ensure that we are still capable of incarcerating those who pose the most significant risk to society.

“I think that is a critical part of our justice system that needs to remain, and so I don’t think it would be wise to set a target for what that incarceration level should be, because that is going to fluctuate depending on the business that comes through the courts and the levels of criminality that we see.”