Prison inmates refuse to go back indoors

INMATES at Saughton prison staged a sit-down protest after staff ordered them inside at the end of an hour outdoors.

Around 45 prisoners from the jail's Hermiston Hall are reported to have demanded to be allowed to stay outside in the sunshine yesterday.

They held a 30-minute sit-in to make the most of the good weather before relenting when wardens threatened to leave them outside on a rainy day as punishment, it was reported today.

A source said: "After such a long winter, they have been lapping up the weather.

"They were raging when the hour ended and they were told to get back inside. So about 45 guys decided to sit down and refused to budge. The whole jail was locked down while officers went to deal with it. They told the cons they would get extra time outside in pouring rain next time if they didn't get back inside. There was a bit of an argument and then they all fell back into line."

The Scottish Prison Service refused to comment.