SCOTLAND'S public services watchdog has demanded a shake-up in the way prisons treat children visiting relatives following upheld complaints that a 15-year-old girl was "inappropriately searched".
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman found that the girl, a daughter of a prisoner at the high security HMP Kilmarnock prison, was searched in the absence of an appropriate adult.
Although the girl was with her 16-year-old brother, the prison rules were that he was not considered an appropriate adult as he was not 18.
The Scottish Prison Service confirmed to the ombudsman that it did not have a national policy in place in relation to the age a person must be to accompany a child under the age of 16 who is visiting a prison.
An ombudsman report into the incident at the privately-run prison rapped the Scottish Prison Service for "irrelevant and inaccurate" responses surrounding the complaint and concluded the evidence available suggested prisons across Scotland have been operating inconsistently as there is no standard policy in place.
The ombudsman recommended that the SPS update the office by November 20 over steps taken to implement a "relevant policy" over the age a person must be to accompany a child under the age of 16 when they visit a prison.
It also said the SPS should take "immediate steps" to ensure staff within all prisons are fully aware of the policy in place.
A prisoner lodged the complaint after his daughter was searched after setting off a metal detector. After this, both children were denied the right to visit their father because the girl, identified only as "Miss A", was not accompanied by an appropriate adult.
The ombudsman reported that Mr C said the situation had "caused upset and distress to himself and his children and it was clear the prison had breached policy by searching his daughter without an adult being present".
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: "We have already taken steps to address the issues raised by the ombudsman in his report."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article