'Excessive' overcrowding in Scottish prisons could lead to 'catastrophic failure', says prisons boss
Theresa Medhurst says prison staff have felt ‘relentless’ pressure for the past two years.
Scotland’s prisons boss has said “excessive” overcrowding could lead to “catastrophic failure” in jails.
Theresa Medhurst, chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, also attacked the Scottish Government’s funding allocation for 2026/27, saying it falls £15.3 million short of what they need which will see a "degradation" of the sector.
This comes as SNP ministers look to release hundreds of prisoners after serving just a third of their sentences in a bid to free up space in overcrowded prisons.
Ms Medhurst made the warning during an evidence session at Holyrood’s criminal justice committee, where she told MSPs the pressure on the prison system over the past two years has been “relentless”.
She said: “I must be clear, the budget allocation falls somewhat short of what we believe we need to reach the full range of our delivery agenda, give much-needed improvements and ease current pressures.
“We have an ageing estate which is in desperate need of upgrades. While there is continued capital investment for two new prisons, which will be excellent facilities for replacing ageing buildings, it is still a great concern.
“Due to the excessive population, the estate continues to degrade and could result in catastrophic failure.”
The long-term prison population has increased by 800 since 2021/22, and the number of prisoners convicted of sex offences has increased by 900.
Ms Medhurst said these prisoners alone could fill an additional prison the size of HMP Edinburgh.
She warned this has created a “bottleneck” on services such as rehabilitation, psychology, NHS and social work.
The committee was also told the funding gap for 2026/27 will “potentially result in a degradation of services” which will result in more people being stuck in prison for longer because they cannot access the rehabilitation they need.
Two new prisons are currently in the works - HMP Glasgow and HMP Highland - but the prisons boss says there are still concerns about the wider prison estate.
She said HMP Dumfries, HMP Greenock and HMP Perth have all experienced infrastructure failures recently such as broken boilers and heating problems.
Staff at these prisons are having to resort to temporary boilers at “significant cost” to the Scottish Prison Service until they are permanently replaced.
One of the other issues is prisoners cannot be relocated to another part of the prison while maintenance work is carried out because there is no extra space.
Ms Medhurst said: “Very simply, we don’t have capacity for the number of people so the population needs to reduce.
“For two years now it has been running at a high population level and the distribution of the population is also causing problems.”
Ms Medhurst also noted that the prison population “surged” in the two Saturdays after Christmas, resulting in an extra 150 prisoners.
This is in addition to between 40 and 50 extra prisoners being incarcerated every week since Christmas.
While there is normally a “slow and steady rise” in prisoner numbers in the post-Christmas period, what has been seen this year is too much for the prison estate to cope with.
Justice Secretary Angela Constance is due to make a statement to parliament on Thursday to discuss a new report from the Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission which recommends a presumption against sentences of under two years.
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