Cornton Vale prison
Background
Cornton vale prison is the only Scottish women’s prison. located near Stirling, it opened in 1975 and in the 2009 HMP report the population was 399 prisoners.
Cornton vale has a troubled history with 7 prisoners committing suicide in a very short space of time. However they seem to have overcome this problem with no suicides reported in the last 4 years. The number of women sent to cornton vale is steadily increasing, so much so that there is now a number of women being held in HMP Greenock as a result of overcrowding. In the resent SPS annual inspection, it is claimed that Cornton vale is in a state of crisis and an ever increasing prison population is one of the main causes of this. In general Cornton vale is not performing to a satisfactory standard and living conditions for the women drastically need to be improved.
Structure
There is no doubt that despite other criticism about the way in which the prison is run. The regime at cornton vale is very safe for all prisoners.
There are 6 housing blocks within the perimeter and an independent living area outside:
-Wallace house has 51 rooms and houses prisoners who require more supervision
-Ross house is for women on remand and has 33 cells
-Skye house is for life sentences and long term prisoners
-pebbles house has those who are low risk prisoners and it also has the mother and baby unit.
-Younger house also has remand prisoners
The prison uses Prison chaplains as a key resource when rehabilitating prisoners
Rehabilitation programmes/opportunities.
The reader in residence programme in cornton vale creates a range of informal learning activities which engage prisoners who would not otherwise have taken part in education.
Cornton Vale also provides courses in hair dressing and beauty therapy.
However these regimes are hindered by overcrowding as the capacity of these courses simply cannot cope with the amount of prisoners in need of them.
The prison uses peer tutors and listeners to help the prisoners and this is very effective.
It has also been reported that there is a high amount of boredom at Cornton Vale and this is due to a lack of recourses and there fore prisoners spend a lot of time locked up in their cells. This is a massive hindrance to their rehabilitation programmes.
Effectiveness of these programmes
Cornton vale has successfully increased the range and number of community vocational placements available to prisoners.
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Current issues surrounding the prison
Recently there has been a high nember of suicides with 7 prisoners taking their own lives within 12 months. This sparked major debates over the effectiveness of prison over other forms of capital punishment.
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