Prison upgrade funds spent in drugs fight

JACK McConnell was at the centre of Scotland’s "slopping out" fiasco last night, after it emerged he had been involved in a decision to "re-allocate" funds originally destined to improve sanitation in the country’s prisons.

The First Minister’s involvement in the issue, during his term as finance minister in 1999, emerged as the Scottish Executive confirmed that "adequate" toilet facilities would not be provided for all prisoners north of the Border until at least 2008, when a second new prison is expected to be completed at Low Moss on the outskirts of Glasgow.

Despite repeated ministerial pledges to end the practice, there remains 1,200 prisoners in five prisons - Barlinnie, Polmont, Perth, Edinburgh and Peterhead - who have no access to sanitation in their cells and who have to "slop out" their own waste in communal toilet blocks.

On Monday, Robert Napier, an inmate at Barlinnie Prison, in Glasgow, was awarded 2,450 in damages after taking the Executive to court for making him "slop out" during his time in jail.

In evidence, Napier said that while on remand, his cell had no toilet or sink and he was locked up for at least 19 or 20 hours a day, describing the "slopping-out" process in the morning as gut-wrenching.

Lord Bonomy ruled at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that the Executive had breached Robert Napier’s human rights by imposing such a "degrading" and "abhorrent" practice on him.

Speaking last night, a spokesman for the Executive confirmed to The Scotsman that despite the threat of thousands of legal cases against them in the coming years, no date had yet been set to outlaw "slopping out".

He said: "We can confirm that no date has been set in stone for ending ‘slopping out’. The 2005 target we originally had in place is no longer viable.

"At present, we anticipate the practice will not come to an end until a year after the second new prison facility, agreed under the terms of the Prison Estates Review, comes on-line."

The extent of the problem came as details of the First Minister’s involvement in the decision not to release funds to improve toilet facilities emerged.

According to an Executive source, Mr McConnell, along with Jim Wallace, the former justice minister, was involved in the decision to re-allocate funds originally destined to install improved sanitation in Scotland’s prisons in order to assist drug rehabilitation and witness protection programmes north of the Border.

While the Executive admitted last night that Mr McConnell was involved in the process, a spokesman claimed that the decision was made "collectively" by the Cabinet.

He said: "While the First Minister was finance minister in 1999, all decisions on End Year Flexibility were made collectively by Cabinet and announced to the Scottish Parliament.

"At the time of the decision, the Executive had launched a major review of the Prison Estate to decide future estate requirements and priorities for investment. While the future of Barlinnie was under fundamental review in this way, ministers decided it would not be an effective use of public funds to invest in refurbishment at that time.

"This is why the money was allocated to other justice priorities, such as the establishment of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency."