HMP Greenock is a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

located in

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, 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''.

Senior Management

HMP Greenock's Governor is Mrs Morag Stirling and the Deputy Governor is Mr. Gerry Watt.

Residential areas

HMP Greenock is divided into five separate residential areas.

Arran and Bute

Work began to build Arran and Bute halls in August 2013, with work completed in July 2014. These Halls are a new type of facility called Community Integration Units (CIU) They will hold 8 and 6 prisoners respectively, who will use their time there as a stepping stone in to the community.

Ailsa Hall

Ailsa Hall is the Prison's largest hall with a design capacity of 131, although this is usually exceede

It holds remand prisoners, short term prisoners (STPs) and a small selection of long term prisoners (LTPs). This hall is all single-cell accommodation with electric power in cells and integral sanitation facilities.

Darroch Hall

Darroch Hall accommodates female offenders. This hall is all single accommodation with electric power in cells and integral sanitation facilities. Darroch Hall is designed to accommodate 56 prisoners.

Chrisswell House

The role of Chrisswell House is to prepare LTPs for progression to open conditions at Castle Huntly, HMP Castle Huntly. It has electric power in cells with shared sanitation facilities. Chrisswell House is designed to hold 64 prisoners.

Visits

Visits are run 7 days a week, with three sessions run Monday to Friday and two sessions at the weekend. The times below apply to both remand and convicted prisoners. Ailsa Hall prisoners may receive visitors every day of the week. Darroch Hall prisoners may receive visitors every day of the week. Chrisswell House prisoners may receive visitors every day of the week.

Monday to Friday

Session 1: 15:10 - 15:55
Session 2: 18:45 - 19:30
Session 3: 19:50 - 20:35 For information regarding which sessions are set aside for each hall you can telephone the vestibule officer on 01475 88 33 00.
Sessions last a maximum of 50 minutes during the week, but can be cut to 30 minutes should any operational need arise, for example, an incident occurring between sessions. Further details of local rules may be obtained a
HMP Greenock visiting page

Saturday & Sunday

Visits at weekends are either 75 minutes for the family session or 60 minutes for the remaining sessions, and may be reduced to 30 minutes for operational reasons

and ttp://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/ssi2006/20060094.htm#64 Rule 64 of The Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2006 for untried and civil prisoners Saturday Session 1(family with children session): 13:40 - 14:50, Session 2 (Ailsa and Chrisswell): 15:15 - 16:15 Sunday Session 1(Ailsa and Chrisswell) : 13:40 - 14:50, Session 2(Darroch) : 15:15 - 16:15

Notable prisoners

* Edward Cairney – Murderer of Margaret Fleming, who in 2016 was discovered to have disappeared while under Cairney and his partner's care in 1999 or 2000. This was the subject of the 2019

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

documentary ''Murder Trial: The Disappearance of Margaret Fleming'' *

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi ( , ; 1 April 1952 – 20 May 2012) was a Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103. He was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Trip ...

- Found guilty of 270 counts of murder in 2001 in connection with the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which remains the worst act of terrorism to take place on British soil. Released in August 2009 on compassionate grounds due to his terminal prostate cancer prognosis, he died in Libya in May 2012.

References

1
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland, Report on HM Prison Greenock 2001

External links

HM Prison Greenock
on Scottish Prison Service website
Full inspection report published February 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenock (Hm Prison) Prisons in Scotland Buildings and structures in Inverclyde 1910 establishments in Scotland Government agencies established in 1910 Young offender institutions in Scotland Buildings and structures in Greenock