Scottish prisons aren’t all inspected the way prisons in England & Wales are. HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) still carries out full inspections at some establishments, rating performance against nine Standards (from Good down to Unacceptable), but for most prisons it now monitors continuously through the year instead, using local volunteer Independent Prison Monitors (IPMs) who report their findings annually rather than through a single inspection visit.
HMP Glenochil was given a full inspection from 24 to 28 February 2025. Inspectors rated Standard 2 (Conditions) Poor, Standard 9 (Health and Wellbeing) Good – an improvement on 2019 – three Standards Satisfactory and four Generally Acceptable. The prison held 710 prisoners, with 244 held in emergency double cells that fall short of the four-square-metre standard.
Standard 2 was marked down largely over food and hygiene: the food-law rating was “Improvement Required” and menus hadn’t changed in over four years. Sixteen prisoners were held under Rule 95 in residential areas with no regime at all, and 19 were taken to hospital under emergency procedures the December before the inspection. On the positive side, health services were a genuine strength – the report records 35 examples of good practice, 20 of them in health services alone – though 85% of prisoners still said the complaints system worked badly.
To read the full report, go to the HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland website or follow the link below:
- Full inspection report (PDF), HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland, 24–28 February 2025