Ex-con lifts lid on overcrowding in Scotland's only women's jail

May 18 2008 Exclusive by Norman Silvester

AN ex - inmate of Scotland's only women's prison today lifts the lid on the lax regime behind the bars of Cornton Vale.

Recovering drug addict Elaine McGovern says prisoners are given the keys to their own cells and are being allowed to finish sentences early because of chronic overcrowding.

And she highlights astonishing security breaches.

Drug addicts sell sex to other inmates to pay for their habit.

Low-risk cons share cellblocks with hardened killers.

Drugs, including heroin and crack, are regularly smuggled into the jail.

A shortage of female prison officers means full body searches cannot be carried out.

Cons are given their drug-taking kit on leaving prison - even if they have come off heroin while inside.

Elaine, 22, was jailed after breaking a probation order for shoplifting but completed drug rehabilitation while in prison.

She was admitted to Cornton Vale, near Stirling, on March 27 and was not due for release until the end of May.

But she was released on April 28 on a home detention curfew and has to wear an electronic tag. She is not allowed to eave her flat in Lanark between 7pm and 7am but is free to go where she likes during the day.

On her release Elaine was amazed to be handed back a drug-injecting kit, containing needles and citric acid used in the preparation of heroin, which had been confiscated on arrival at the jail.

She said: "I could not believe it when they gave it back to me.

"I had originally got the kit from a drop-in centre in Lanark and it was the last thing I wanted after coming off the stuff.

"I would have thought they would have just put it in the bin.

"I think people are given their own cell keys so they can take drugs in peace at nights and at the weekends.

"The prison officers seem happy that the women are chilled out and don't cause any bother.

"There were women who could not get off drugs and were so desperate they would even sleep with other prisoners to pay for the drugs which were floating about.

"The ones they slept with were usually the women controlling the supply.

"Thankfully I managed to stay away from all that and successfully complete the drug rehabilitation programme.

"I have been free from drugs for the last four weeks for the first time since I was 15.

"The only reason I committed crime was to pay for heroin.

"Now I want to lead a normal life and stay out of prison."

Elaine was also shocked that nonviolent prisoners serving short-term sentences are housed alongside notorious killers such as Gurmit Bassi, Mary Ryan and Edith McAlinden. Bassi is serving life after hiring a hitman to kill her husband. Ryan lured businessman gangster Manny O'Donnell to his death while McAlinden murdered aman in a flat in Glasgow in what was described as a bloodbath.

Elaine's latest stint at Cornton Vale was the third time she had been locked up there.

She said: "I was astonished at how lax security had become since I was last in last year.

"I was also astonished when they let me out after a month particularly as I have other charges pending for shoplifting.

"But I later learned it was because the jail was overcrowded and there was not enough staff."

Dave Melrose, chairman of the Scottish Prison Officers Association, said:

"We are at our full complement of staff and recruiting more. It just that the prison's population is so high at the moment.

"We are not in favour of prisoners being tagged on early release as we think people should serve their full sentence."

He added: "We know there is a problem with drugs getting into prisons.

"However Cornton Vale probably has a higher percentage of drug addicts being admitted than any other institution."

The Scottish Prison Service said: "Prisoners are given keys to enable them to go to the toilet at night.

"They are still confined to the area of the unit where their cell is and the key does not allow them access to other parts of the unit.

"There has never been an escape from Cornton Vale and our security measures are very rigorous.

"There is a problem with contraband getting into prison which we recognise but it is not physically possible to stripsearch every person who visits the prison and may be concealing drugs or other items.

"But we have had good success recently in dealing with this issue."

Cornton Vale houses 300 prisoners - the highest number in its history.

The SPS insist it is normal practice for prisoners serving different sentences to be mixed together.

A spokesman added: "The prisoner you spoke to would have been given her needle pack back as it was her personal property."

The Scottish prison population has risen by a fifth since 2001 to around 8000 - the highest-ever.

Ministers are having to spend £280million to build three "super prisons" - in Addiewell, West Lothian; Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow; and Peterhead, Aberdeenshire - to help ease the pressure on overcrowded jails.

This month MSPs voted narrowly to extend the home detention tagging scheme to prisoners serving four years or more because of overcrowding.

'I could not believe they gave me back the drug kit when I left the jail..it was the last thing I wanted after coming off the stuff' EX-CON ELAINE McGOVERN

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