Barlinnie prisoners ‘without hot showers and heating’ amid ongoing water problems

Work is ongoing to restore water and heating to Scotland’s largest prison, with one inmate’s family saying he has not had a hot shower for 11 days.

STV News understands that an outage affecting the G33 postcode on October 1 saw the water supply to HMP Barlinnie knocked out.

However, the Scottish Prison Service said that once the mains supply was restored, a leak within the estate was identified leading to continued issues over the weekend.

Tankers were still being used to pump water into the Glasgow prison on Sunday evening, amid claims that pipes had not been fully repaired and the boiler system was not working.

Scottish Water told STV News that the problem was not caused by a fault in its network and that enquiries should be directed to the Scottish Prison Service.

The family of one prisoner told STV News their loved one had not had a hot shower for the last 11 days, since October 1, and his last shower, using cold water, had been on Wednesday last week.

They said “animals are treated better in the zoo”.

The family told STV News: “There are water tankers getting used to pump water into the prison at the moment, the pipes still haven’t been fixed and the boiler system is broken and there is no hot water inside the prison and prisoners in certain halls are not having hot showers and there is no heating on inside the prison.”

They also claimed the prison was “freezing” due to boiler problems and said no additional blankets had been provided to prisoners.

During a visit to the prison, they said conditions were so cold in the visitors’ hall that they could see their breath.

The woman also claimed prisoners were unable to contact Independent Prison Monitors because access had been blocked.

They also alleged an area of the prison estate known as “the Shed” and the prison gym do have hot running showers because they are electric and are not supplied by the boiler, however, prisoners are being denied access to those showers.

Prisoners are also unable to use the gym because they cannot shower afterwards.

The woman went on to further say their family member was developing red patches of skin due to being unable to wash daily.

A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “As our estates team have worked through the issues of the last few days, further repair work has been identified.

“While water supply has been restored, and heating and hot water are available, there continues to be some disruption.

“We are grateful to those in our care for their cooperation and understanding.”