MINISTERS are considering scaling back the proposed £75million replacement for Cornton Vale women's prison.
The Scottish Government yesterday confirmed a final decision had not been taken and "consideration remains ongoing" about the planned 350 cell facility at Greenock.
Doubts have emerged only a month after the head of the project, former Cornton Vale governor Kate Donegan, unveiled artists impressions of how the new facility would look when it opened in 2017.
She said the plans - which included a "mother and family garden" - would make the prison a "beacon" to be copied around the world.
However, the Scottish Government has come under growing pressure to develop a smaller prison as part of a wider plan to improve rehabilitation of women offenders.
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy this week called for the project to be scrapped, describing it as a "super-prison".
The campaign group Women for Independence has also spoken out against the proposal, which critics claim runs counter to a report drawn up by former Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini in 2012.
She called for Scotland's only women's prison, Cornton Vale, near Stirling to be replaced by recommended a series of local facilities for women serving shorter sentences and a small main jail for the most serious offenders.
The local facilities are being developed.
Last month, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson backed the Inverclyde jail in principle but told Holyrood's justice committee "the final configuration in terms of size is a matter I want to take just a wee bit of time to understand...before coming to any final decision on what approach we should take going forward".
A Scottish Government spokeswoman yesterday declined to confirm the prison would definitely go ahead.
She added: "The Cabinet Secretary for Justice is considering the final configuration of the new prison estate, as he recently indicated to the Justice Committee and this consideration remains ongoing."
Dame Elish Angiolini, now Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford, said: "Our recommendations about prison for women are clear.
"They formed an important part of a wide package of recommendations which I hope the Scottish Government will continue to implement.
"I am pleased to hear the Cabinet Secretary is giving further consideration to the plans for Inverclyde."
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