Women suffer 'degrading and inhumane' conditions in busiest court

In a damning report, he highlighted major concerns at the courthouse, including a lack of privacy for female inmates who must walk past unscreened male toilets that were “odorous and clearly visible from the hallway”.

Some attending court would be held in cells where the only toilet was a male urinal and failed to provide emergency “call buttons” for vulnerable prisoners with mental health problems.

Scotland’s chief prison inspector told The Herald: “I have highlighted my findings to the court service and would expect them to take action.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service said it was committed to providing decent holding cells and regularly ordered emergency deep cleaning of cell facilities.

The highly critical assessment of Glasgow Sheriff Court, said to be Europe’s busiest with up to 2,000 users a day, comes as part of a comprehensive review of Cornton Vale, Scotland’s only female prison.

Inmates at Cornton Vale were told to “pee in the sink” by prison officers who faced waiting for lengthy periods to use the toilet at night, Mr Strang found.

In what is likely to be his last report on the jail, which is scheduled to be replaced, he said almost half of the 200-230 imprisoned women had no direct access to toilets.

Several women told inspectors they had been instructed to urinate in a sink “pee in the sink” when they had been unable to visit a toilet promptly. This practice most often occurred at night due to a computerised system governing access to toilets.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said the highlighted problems would cease when about half of the women in the jail are moved to Her Majesty’s Young Offenders Institution Polmont this summer. This comes ahead of Cornton Vale’s planned closure and the building of a new smaller prison on the present site near Stirling. The report also stressed that inmates were often reluctant to complain because they feared the system did not guarantee confidentiality.

Prison officers were said to routinely wave fellow staff through security checks even after they had set off alarms because they failed to understand the operation of X-ray screening machines.

However, the report says Cornton Vale is no longer in crisis, as it had been at the time of a previous visit and the chief inspector praised the generally good relations between staff and prisoners, a new and improved segregation unit and new visitor facilities.

HM chief inspector of prisons, David Strang

But Ross House, which houses many of Cornton Vale’s most vulnerable prisoners, including those with mental health issues, is criticised with cells described as dirty, untidy and poorly equipped. A former inmate told how inspectors had been too generous to the ageing jail.

“Because staff aren’t trained in how to deal with prisoners with mental-health problems, prisoners are locked up all day, apart from an hour so they can take a shower,” she said.

“Suicidal prisoners are kept locked up for 23 hours a day with nothing in their cell and are only allowed out for one hour for a shower and sometimes exercise. Many of the cells are bare looking and mattresses have been scribbled on.”

Shadow justice spokesman Graeme Pearson MSP, former director of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, said it was “hard to believe” prisoners in Cornton Vale were being encouraged to use washhand basins as toilets.

He said: “If women are to be rehabilitated and encouraged to change their ways they must be treated with dignity and respect.”

A spokeswoman for the SPS welcomed the findings that prisoners felt safe and relationships with staff were positive.

She added: “The recent announcement by the minister means that what has been described by the chief inspector in terms of night sanitation arrangements will no longer be an issue. SPS is rolling out a training package on handling, managing and responding to complaints to staff and management.”