Prisons – The modern prison system

Under the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1877, the administration of Scottish prisons became the responsibility of the Prison Commission for Scotland and the responsibility for funding prisons passed to parliament and central government.[1] A visiting committee, consisting of commissioners of supply and justices of the peace (in counties) and magistrates (in burghs) was appointed yearly for each prison. Between 1885 and 1889 responsibility for prisons in Scotland was transferred to the Secretary for Scotland (from 1926, the Secretary of State for Scotland).

In 1878 the average daily population of prisons was 2,024 males and 1,028 females, and the General Prison at Perth, which housed convicts serving sentences exceeding 9 months and lunatic prisoners, was seriously overcrowded. As a temporary expedient, male convicts, after their probationary period, were transferred to prisons in England to complete their sentences, until the erection of Barlinnie Prison, near Glasgow, in 1882, which served partly as a General Prison. By 1904 the number of Scottish prisons was reduced to 14 and most long sentences were served in Peterhead Prison (for men) and Duke Street Prison, Glasgow (for women). In 1980 the prison population was 5,116 with capacity for 5,200.

The Reorganisation of Offices (Scotland) Act 1928 placed Scottish prisons under the supervision of the Prisons Department of the Scottish Office.[2] The Prisons Department also took responsibility for the registration and photography of prisoners, which had previously been the responsibility of the Secretary of the Managers of the General Prison and the Prison Commission for Scotland. By the late 1930s the Prisons Department became part of the Scottish Home Department which in turn became the Scottish Home and Health Department in 1962. The role of the Secretary of State for Scotland in overall charge of the prison system was reaffirmed in 1989.[3] In 1993 the Scottish Prison Service became an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government.

Records of the Scottish Prison Service and its predecessors are held by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). These include prison registers, some of which have been digitised and are available through the Virtual Volumes pages of ScotlandsPeople. <https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/prison-registers#record-type> [accessed 24 April 2024].

Compilers: SCAN contributors (2000). Editor: Elspeth Reid (2024).

Related Knowledge Base entries

Prisons – Burgh tolbooths and early prisons

Prisons – Prison reform and centralisation

Prisons – Industrial & Reformatory Schools, Borstals and Young Offenders Institutions

Prison records – modern prison records

Prison records – County Prison Board minutes

Bibliography

Cameron, Joy, Prisons and Punishment in Scotland (Canongate, 1983)

Walker, David M., A Legal History of Scotland, 6 vols (Green, 1988-2001)

References

[1] Prisons (Scotland) Act 1877 (40 & 41 Vict. c.53).