`Relaxed' jail where 7 women have killed themselves

THE SUICIDES of seven young women in a Scottish prison have prompted the Government to undertake wide-ranging reform of the treatment of female inmates north of the border.

Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, yesterday promised to take steps to minimise the number of women sent to jail. He pledged to halve the female prison population within two years. Mr McLeish was forced to act after the publication of a critical report by Scotland's chief inspectors of prisons and social work, who were called in to investigate after seven women took their lives over a two-year period at Scotland's only all-female prison, Cornton Vale. Two of the victims were 17 years old.

Among the findings in the report was that well over a third of all women in custody in Scotland have attempted to take their own lives at some stage, usually outside prison, and 82 per cent had experienced "some form of abuse" during their lives.

Cornton Vale is a modern jail on the outskirts of Stirling, opened in 1975 as Scotland's first purpose-built prison for women. Although it was designed to create a "relaxed atmosphere", prison reform groups said yesterday that it had instead acquired a reputation as a "suicide jail".

Scotland's chief inspector of prisons, Clive Fairweather, called for more television sets in cells at the prison to reduce the potential for "morbid contemplation". Televisions in cells have been described by American experts as "the best babysitter ever", he noted.

Mr Fairweather pointed out that less than 1 per cent of the 200-strong Scottish female prisoner population were violent offenders and most were being punished for "petty nuisance".

Yesterday, Clare Sparks, of the Prison Reform Trust, said that many of the problems identified in Scotland were also being experienced by female prisoners in England and Wales who were often starved of purposeful activity. "There is a major problem with self-harm," she said. "We are constantly hearing that women are bored and don't have anything to do."

She said that the female prison population in England and Wales had doubled in the past five years and at more than 3,000 was at its highest level since 1905.

The Scottish report calls for facilities to be opened up for women prisoners at Inverness and Dumfries jails, which are predominantly for male prisoners, and for more to be done to reduce the number of women sent to prison for non-payment of fines.

The inspectors called for the creation of a powerful group to resolve at local level the issues identified in the report, including prosecutors, police, the prison and health services, and voluntary bodies.

They also recommended that Cornton Vale be reshaped with more shared accommodation for inmates.

After one of the longest inquiries in Scottish legal history last year, a sheriff concluded that no one was to blame for the six suicides he studied, and he ruled that no "reasonable" precaution could have been taken to prevent the deaths.

Almost 90 per cent of inmates at Cornton Vale have taken drugs, including many of those who committed suicide. Chris Tchaikovsky, director of the London-based trust Women in Prison, said yesterday that more young female inmates would take their own lives unless they were given access to drug rehabilitation units.

Mr McLeish promised a positive response to the report which he described as a "watershed" for the criminal justice system in Scotland.

He said: "For the first time we have a distinctive focus on the position of women in the criminal justice system and the Government is absolutely committed to using this heightened awareness to match policy need."

But he said no decision would be taken on the report's recommendation to end the practice of jailing women under 18 before the completion of a major study into young offenders in Scotland which is exploring how the jailing of boys and girls under the age of 17 can be minimised.