Scottish Prisoners may have to be freed because of overcrowding

A damning revelation to The BBC has shown that overcrowding has become so prolific in Scottish Prisons, the service could have to release prisoners early to tackle the issue.

Teresa Medhurst, chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, was interviewed as part of Disclosure: Prisons On The Brink which is on BBC One Scotland on Monday.

She told the programme that the service is "on the brink" and that special powers may have to be introduced to allow the service to free prisoners early, because of the severity of the situation.

Medhurts said she would soon be at a point where she had to admit that 'enough is enough'.

The Prison Service CEO said that prisons become highly charged and dangerous environments when overcrowding is an issue.

"The atmosphere, the tension, the volatility increases. Levels of violence increase, levels of self-harm increase."

The BBC was granted access to HMP Perth as part of their Disclosure programme, a prison that has a capacity of 630 prisoners, but currently houses 662.

An inmate told journalists and the production team that whilst on remand awaiting trial, and critically therefore not currently guilty of a crime, he was having to wait 7 months to access mental health support.

He also spoke about a 24-year-old man who had killed himself in custody because he "didn't have 7 months in him."

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture says that cells shared by prisoners need to be above 8m sq so as not to be inhuman and degrading - some cells being shared by two people in HMP Perth are 7m sq.