HM Prison Barlinnie

Last updated

HMP Barlinnie
HMP Barlinnie.jpg
HM Prison Barlinnie
Location Riddrie, Glasgow
Coordinates 55°52′10″N4°10′55″W / 55.86944°N 4.18194°W / 55.86944; -4.18194
StatusOperational
Capacity1018
Population1600 (approx)
Opened1882
Managed by Scottish Prison Service
Governor Michael Stoney
Website sps.gov.uk/prisons/barlinnie

HM Prison Barlinnie is the largest prison in Scotland. It is operated by the Scottish Prison Service and is located in the residential suburb of Riddrie, in the northeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It is informally known locally as The Big Hoose, Bar and Bar-L. [1] [2] In 2018, plans for its closure were announced.

Contents

History

Aerial view of the prison (2018) showing its proximity to Smithycroft Secondary School and housing HMP Barlinnie from the air (geograph 5716363).jpg
Aerial view of the prison (2018) showing its proximity to Smithycroft Secondary School and housing

Barlinnie was designed by Major General Thomas Bernard Collinson, architect and engineer to the Scottish Prison Department, and it was built in the then rural area of Riddrie adjacent to the Monkland Canal (now the route of the M8 motorway), first opening with the commissioning of A hall in July 1882.

Barlinnie prison's five accommodation halls: A, B, C, D and E, were built in stages between 1882 and 1897, with each holding approximately 69 inmates.

There was a major extension to the perimeter in 1967 to create an industrial compound. From 1973 till 1994, the world-famous "Special Unit" placed emphasis on rehabilitation, the best known success story being that of reformed Glasgow gangster Jimmy Boyle. Cultural output associated with the Special Unit included Boyle's autobiography, A Sense of Freedom (1977); The Hardman (1977), the play Boyle wrote with Tom McGrath; a body of sculpture; and The Silent Scream (1979), a book of prose and poems by Larry Winters, who committed suicide in 1977. [3]

Capital punishment

A total of 10 judicial executions by hanging took place at HMP Barlinnie between 1946 and 1960, replacing the gallows at Duke Street Prison before the final abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom for murder in 1969: [4]

DateNameAge (years)Executioner
8 February 1946John Lyon21 Thomas Pierrepoint
6 April 1946 Patrick Carraher 39Thomas Pierrepoint
10 August 1946John Caldwell20 Albert Pierrepoint
30 October 1950Christopher Harris28Albert Pierrepoint
16 December 1950James Robertson33Albert Pierrepoint
12 April 1952James Smith22Albert Pierrepoint
29 May 1952Patrick Gallagher Deveney42Albert Pierrepoint
26 January 1953George Francis Shaw25Albert Pierrepoint
11 July 1958 Peter Manuel 31 Harry Allen
22 December 1960 Anthony Miller 19Harry Allen

Each of the condemned men had been convicted of murder. All the executions took place at 8.00 am. As was the custom, the remains of all executed prisoners were the property of the state, and were therefore buried in unmarked graves within the walls of the prison. During the D hall renovations of 1997, the prison gallows cell (built into D-hall) was finally demolished and the remains of all the executed prisoners were exhumed for reburial elsewhere.

Escapes

The first man to escape from Barlinnie was John Dobbie, three days after being sentenced to 15 years for a violent robbery in 1985. Dobbie escaped inside a laundry van, he was captured by armed police five days later and was sentenced to a further five years. [5]

Current use

Today Barlinnie is the largest prison in Scotland, holding just under 1,400 prisoners although it has a design capacity of 987. [6] The prison currently receives prisoners from the courts in the West of Scotland as well as retaining male remand prisoners and prisoners serving less than 4-year sentences. It also allocates suitable prisoners from its convicted population to lower security prisons, including HMP Low Moss and HMP Greenock, as well as holding long-term prisoners in the initial phase of their sentence prior to transfer to long-term prisons such as HMP Glenochil, HMP Shotts, HMP Kilmarnock or HMP Grampian.

Barlinnie prison still consists of five accommodation halls with each holding approximately 200 inmates and an additional National Top End Facility (Letham Hall) housing long term prisoners nearing the end of their incarceration. All five accommodation halls were refurbished between 1997 and 2004. There is also a hospital unit with accommodation for 18 prisoners, which includes eight cells specially designed for suicide supervision. A new administration and visiting block was completed in 1999.

The in-cell bucket-as-toilet routine known as slopping out was still in practice there as late as 2003. Since 2001, refurbishment has taken place after critical reports by the Scottish Chief Inspector of Prisons. [7]

In October 2018, it was announced that HMP Barlinnie is to be sold and replaced with a new superjail within Glasgow or its outskirts. [8]

In 2019, local MP Paul Sweeney proposed that the historic prison buildings be saved from demolition and converted into a prison museum after it is decommissioned. [9]

In January 2020, the Prison Service announced that the proposed site for the replacement prison was a 22-hectare (54-acre) site formerly occupied by Provan Gas Works. [6]

Research

Cooperation between the prison authorities, the prisoners and third parties has resulted in the production of research materials suggesting the following conclusions:

(2010) Alcohol is blamed by the majority of youths (av age 18.5 years) for their committing serious harm to others (base study 172 persons) by the use of weapons (mostly knives). 90% of the study group were in Barlinnie for committing serious harm to others (i.e. not crimes of dishonesty). Most were gang members. [10]

Notable former inmates

Further reading

Related Research Articles

Harold Bernard Allen was one of Britain's last official executioners, officiating between 1941 and 1964. He was chief executioner at 41 executions and acted as assistant executioner at 53 others, at various prisons in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and Cyprus. He acted as assistant executioner for 14 years, mostly to Albert Pierrepoint from 1941 to 1955.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riddrie</span> District of Glasgow, Scotland

Riddrie is a north-eastern district of Glasgow, Scotland. It lies on the A80 Cumbernauld Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Wandsworth</span> Mens prison in London, England

HM Prison Wandsworth is a Category B men's prison at Wandsworth in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South West London, England. It is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service and is one of the largest prisons in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Low Moss</span> Government agency in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, UK

HMP Low Moss is located on the outskirts of Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire; near Glasgow, Scotland. It has been operated by the Scottish Prison Service as a prison since 1968 and was for low-category prisoners who had sentences of less than 36 months to serve. The original establishment was closed in May 2007, with the entire site being cleared and redeveloped with a considerably enlarged footprint. The new prison was reopened in March 2012, and accepted its first intake in almost five years. Scott Watson is the Establishment's acting Governor.

An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which capital punishment is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death row population is housed. Inside the chamber is the device used to carry out the death sentence.

James Boyle is a Scottish former gangster and convicted murderer who became a sculptor and novelist after his release from prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Prison Service</span> Executive agency

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is an executive agency of the Scottish Government tasked with managing prisons and Young Offender Institutions.

HMP & YOI Cornton Vale was a women's prison and young offenders institution in Stirling, Scotland operated by the Scottish Prison Service. The facility comprised a total of 217 cells in its 5 houses. It accepted solely convicted women and girls from 1975 until 1978. In 1978 Parliament passed the necessary legislation to allow females to be held there on remand. Cornton Vale houses female adults and young offenders in Scotland, alongside HMP Grampian, HMP Edinburgh and HMP Polmont. In April 1999, the separation of adults and young offenders was attained. Lady Martha Bruce was the first Governor. The current Governor at Cornton Vale is Paula Arnold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Greenock</span>

HMP Greenock is a prison located in Greenock, Scotland, serving designated courts in western Scotland by holding male prisoners on remand, and short-term convicted prisoners. It also provides a national facility for selected prisoners serving 12 years or over, affording them the opportunity for progression towards release. It also accommodates a small number of female prisoners ranging from remand to long-term. Although officially labelled as HMP Greenock, it continues to be known by its original name Gateside Prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Shepton Mallet</span> Former prison in Shepton Mallet, UK

HMP Shepton Mallet, sometimes known as Cornhill, is a former prison in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. When it closed in 2013, it had been the United Kingdom's oldest operating prison, following the closure of HMP Lancaster Castle in 2011. Before closure, Shepton Mallet was a category C lifer prison holding 189 prisoners. The prison building is Grade II* listed, while the former gatehouse and perimeter walls are Grade II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Inverness</span> Prison in Inverness, Scotland

HM Prison Inverness, also known as Porterfield Prison, is located in the Crown area of Inverness, Scotland, and serves the courts of the Highlands and Islands. It covers all the courts in the Western Isles as well as courts from Fort William, Wick and Elgin. The prison houses both adult and young remand prisoners, convicted adults serving up to four years, and other prisoners awaiting to go to another prison or needing management support, tending to be serving long sentences up to life imprisonment.

Fr Ian Anthony Ross was a Scottish born Catholic priest and member of The Order of Preachers (Dominican). He was also a noted broadcaster, writer, community activist, educator and antiquarian who served as Rector of the University of Edinburgh (1979–1982).

Anthony Joseph Miller became the second-last criminal to be executed in Scotland when he was hanged at Glasgow's Barlinnie Prison on 22 December 1960. Miller had been convicted of murdering John Cremin at Queen's Park Recreation Ground in Glasgow on 6 April 1960. At 19 years of age, Miller was the last teenager to be executed in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Haverigg</span> Prison in Cumbria, England

HM Prison Haverigg is a Category D men's prison, located in the village of Haverigg in Cumbria, and historically in Cumberland, England. The prison is situated just outside the Lake District National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Littlehey</span> Prison in Cambridgeshire, England

HM Prison Littlehey is a Category C male prison in the village of Perry near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, England. Littlehey Prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. The Prison only holds those that have been convicted of a sexual offence.

HM Prison Perth is a prison in Perth, Scotland, which houses remand, short term, long term and life adult male prisoners. It was originally constructed to hold French prisoners captured during the Napoleonic Wars, and is the oldest working prison in Scotland.

HM Prison Shotts is a prison near Shotts, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is a prison holding male prisoners with maximum security classification. Shotts exclusively holds prisoners serving a term of 5 years or longer, with some prisoners being transferred from other prisons due to a need for a more secure environment. The original prison was opened in 1978 with a design capacity of 528 inmates; the prison was completely rebuilt and new facilities opened in 2012, with a capacity of 538 adult male prisoners.

HMP & YOI Grampian is a high security prison in Peterhead, Scotland. It is the only such facility in the northeast of the country, having replaced the former HMPs in Aberdeen and Peterhead in 2014. It is the newest jail in Scotland and amongst the newest in the United Kingdom. It has a design capacity of around 560 inmates.

Prison: First & Last 24 Hours is a British documentary series that was broadcast between 28 October 2015 and 5 December 2016 on Sky 1. It followed prisoners in four Scottish Prison Service-run prisons in Scotland who are either in their first 24 hours of their sentences or are about to be released from jail.

The Peterhead Prison Riot was a prison riot that occurred on 28 September 1987 at HMP Peterhead, in Peterhead.

References

  1. ↑ Wollaston, Sam (3 November 2017). "Ross Kemp Behind Bars: Inside Barlinnie review – Ross gets the inmate experience, minus the strip-search". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 April 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  2. ↑ "Memories: Barlinnie, Glasgow's big hoose on the hill in 1958". Evening Times . Archived from the original on 17 April 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  3. ↑ Ross, Anthony (1979), The Silent Scream, in Bold, Christine (ed.), Cencrastus No1, Autumn 1979, pp. 7 & 8
  4. ↑ "Executions in Scottish prisons". www.capitalpunishmentuk.org. Archived from the original on 20 February 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  5. ↑ "Dangerous prisoner in second escape". The Herald. 16 January 1993. Archived from the original on 24 August 2022. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Site purchased to replace Glasgow's Barlinnie prison". BBC News . 9 January 2020. Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  7. ↑ "Slopping out 'must end'". BBC News. 3 October 2013. Archived from the original on 13 July 2004. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  8. ↑ Borland, Ben (10 February 2019). "'New Barlinnie' super jail set to be built near Glasgow gangster old heartlands". Daily Record. Archived from the original on 10 February 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  9. ↑ Stewart, Stephen (18 October 2019). "Barlinnie jail could be Scotland's new Alcatraz as MPs plan tourist attraction". Daily Record. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  10. ↑ Forsyth, A., Khan, F., & McKinlay, W. (2010). Is there a ‘booze n’ blades culture’ in Scotland? Evidence from young offenders. Scottish Journal of Criminal Justice Studies, 16, 32-46. https://researchonline.gcu.ac.uk/en/publications/is-there-a-booze-n-blades-culture-in-scotland-evidence-from-young Retrieved 19 August 2023
  11. ↑ The Ferris Conspiracy, pp. 86–91.
  12. ↑ A Sense of Freedom, pp. 85–89.
  13. ↑ Mega, Marcello (14 August 2021). "Killer Hugh Collins dubbed Scotland's most dangerous prisoner found dead". Daily Record. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  14. ↑ "In the company of wolves – Hugh Collins – Ajay Close". The Scotsman . Archived by Ajay Close. 23 September 2000. Archived from the original on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. ↑ Masters, Christopher (29 November 2010). "Caroline McNairn obituary". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  16. ↑ "SCOTTISH LEAGUE SFAQs". www.scottishleague.net. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  17. ↑ Gunn, David (21 October 2008). "Lockerbie bomber Al Megrahi treated for 'advanced cancer'". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
  18. ↑ Carrell, Severin (26 January 2011). "Tommy Sheridan sentenced to three years in prison". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  19. ↑ Rae, Steven (9 August 2023). "'Beast of Ibrox' dies in prison decades after reign of terror in Glasgow". Daily Record.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.