Subj: UK: Sco: Warning by prison officers as jails to close in UKP13m cuts



Date: 17th Nov, 1999



Source: The Scotsman, UK



Note: Jim Wallace, Liberal MP and AFAIK justice minister said on TV that

this money was to fund the Scottish DEA which should be operational by

June 2000.





Warning by prison officers as jails to close in UKP13m cuts 



SCOTTISH prisons are facing the biggest upheaval in their history with

the closure of four jails and the transfer of hundreds of inmates

throughout the country. 

 

 

TANYA THOMPSON 

SCOTTISH prisons are facing the biggest upheaval in their history with

the closure of four jails and the transfer of hundreds of inmates

throughout the country.



Senior executives from the Scottish Prison Service met union leaders

yesterday to discuss the closure of Penninghame prison, Dungavel,

Longriggend and Peterhead special unit.



The news comes just weeks after the announcement that 400 jobs will be

lost in the service as part of a major cost-cutting exercise ordered

by the Government.



Jim Dawson, the deputy general secretary of the Scottish Prison

Officers Association, predicted dangerous levels of over-crowding and

called for a pubic inquiry.



He said: "This is the most serious situation to impact on the service

since the riots of the late 1980s. This move will increase

over-crowding. We have just got ourselves into a position where we can

cope with prison numbers but this is going to take us right back to

square one."



Tony Cameron, chief executive of the SPS, announced the closures

yesterday in the light of recent cuts aimed at saving £13 million.