HM Prison Cornton Vale
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HMP & YOI Cornton Vale was a women's prison and young offenders institution in
Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
, Scotland operated by the
Scottish Prison Service The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) () is an executive agency of the Scottish Government tasked with managing prisons and Young Offender Institutions. The Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, currently Teresa Medhurst, is responsible ...
. 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. Cornton Vale is replaced by HMP & YOI Stirling, which has been constructed on an adjacent site. The new facilities opened in July 2023. Cornton Vale closed in April 2023 with inmates being accommodated in other establishments across the female estate prior to moving into the new HMP & YOI Stirling.


Description

The lands of Cornton Vale were sold by John Christie in 1871 to John Thomson, a farmer from Drumtogle in Perthshire. He built a new farmhouse and steading on the site, thereafter known as Cornton Vale. When he died in 1877 the property passed to his daughter Catherine. She married John Alexander, a Glasgow cement merchant and they lived in the house until his death in 1897. From then until 1901 it was occupied by Dr David McCosh, son of
John McCosh John McCosh or John MacCosh or James McCosh (Kirkmichael, South Ayrshire, Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, 5 March 1805 – 18 January / 16 March 1885) was a Scottish army surgeon who made Documentary photography, documentary photographs whilst serving in ...
. Before 1939, the site belonged to a Church of Scotland labour colony (common until the Second World War). Opened in 1907, the colony provided a home and training in market gardening for habitual inebriates and others – all male – sent by the Church or by their families. After the First World War, it took in unemployed men, mainly veterans at first. From 1926 to 1931, it received public funds under the Empire Settlement Act 1922, and most of the trainees were helped to emigrate to the Dominions. It continued to train unemployed young men until the Second World War, but was sold off subsequently and re-opened as a male Borstal in 1946. In 1975 the site was redeveloped as a purpose-built female prison. The layout was unconventional with a series of bungalows forming the basic concept, each with one warden and seven prisoners in individual rooms. It is now Scotland's only all-female establishment and so nearly all female prisoners and young offenders in Scotland are housed here. The complex provides 230 places for women prisoners in five blocks. Four of these blocks (or houses) have 178 places and are sub-divided into six or seven-room units each with its own dining/sitting room, and almost all have a common kitchen or servery. One of these blocks containing 27 places is currently being renovated to provide a dedicated Young Offender facility. In 2004 there was a trial period, allowing children up to the age of 5 years to stay with their mothers.


Criticism

It has been criticised for overcrowding, with 340 inmates being held there in August 2004. A high number of
suicides Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
have taken place there. Eleven women killed themselves while serving sentences at Cornton Vale between 1995 and 2002. In 2010, Brigadier Hugh Munro (the Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland) declared the prison in a "state of crisis", citing overcrowding, two-hour waits for the toilet, cold meals, lack of activities and a deep problem of prisoner boredom which was impeding rehabilitation. In 2006, 98% of the inmates had
addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use can ...
issues; 80% had problems with
mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...
and 75% were survivors of
abuse Abuse is the act of improper usage or treatment of a person or thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, ...
. It also holds children, in particular the babies of inmates who are imprisoned alongside their mothers and teenagers where there is no suitable accommodation available in young offenders institutions. In 2006 it was announced that the practice of "double cuffing" all inmates who are in labour to a custody officer until second stage labour and immediately re-handcuffed after giving birth, had ended. A 2012 review into women's prisons in Scotland, conducted by former
Lord Advocate His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate (), is the principal legal adviser of both the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolution, devolved powers of the Scottish P ...
Elish Angiolini Lady Elish Frances Angiolini (; born 24 June 1960"Angiolini, Elish Frances" in ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', A & C Black.) is a Scottish lawyer currently serving as Lord Clerk Register, the first woman to hold the role since its creation in th ...
described Cornton Vale as "a miserable place" and that conditions for prisoners were "antediluvian and appalling". In 2019 women were found “who clearly were in need of urgent care and treatment in a psychiatric facility, and hoshould not have been in a prison environment”. Among them was one woman who bit through the skin and muscle of her arm down to the bone and another who set her hair on fire.


Replacement

Responding to the Angiolini report, the Scottish Government initially planned to construct HMP Inverclyde, a large women's prison near the existing HM Prison Greenock. The new prison, built on the former site of St Columba's High School on Inverkip Road, would have 300 places and would cost £75 million to construct. In 2014 Justice Secretary Michael Matheson announced revised plans. The new Inverclyde unit will only accommodate 80 high-security women prisoners, with the remaining population housed at smaller units at HMP Grampian and HMP Edinburgh and regional custody units each accommodating up to 20 women. The Government also plans to increase use of non-custodial alternatives such as electronic tagging. The new plan called for the Inverclyde unit to open by 2017 and for Cornton Vale to close entirely by 2018. Responding to a 2016 inspector's report, which found unsanitary conditions at Cornton Vale, the Scottish Prison Service said pressures on Corton Vale would ease with the beginning of its rundown in the summer of 2016 (when some prisoners would move to HMP Polmont) but that full closure would not happen until 2020.


Notable inmates

* Isla Bryson was briefly held at Cornton Vale. * Avril Jones – woman who was convicted after the 2016 discovery of the
disappearance of Margaret Fleming Margaret Fleming (1 November 1980 – c. December 1999/January 2000) was a Scottish woman who was murdered by her nominated carers Edward Cairney (1941 – 2023) and Avril Jones (b. 1960) in the village of Inverkip, Inverclyde, Scotland. The ca ...
, a 19-year-old in her care. It was discovered that Fleming had been killed by her and her accomplice in late 1999 or early 2000 in order to secretly claim financial benefits for years. The case featured in the 2020
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''. * Edith McAlinden (as of 2014) – responsible for a triple murder at a flat in
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
in 2004. * Natalie McGarry – former SNP MP, jailed for
embezzlement Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...
in 2022


Further reading

*Maguire, Maureen, ''Uncomfortably Numb. A Prison Requiem,'' (Luath Press, 2001) A factual documentation of suicides in Cornton Vale Prison. *John Field, "Learning Through Labour: Training, unemployment and the state, 1890–1920", 1992, University of Leeds,


References


External links


Cornton Vale Prison ReportCornton Vale Prison
{{Prisons in Scotland Prisons in Scotland Buildings and structures in Stirling (council area) 1975 establishments in Scotland Women's prisons in Scotland Government agencies established in 1975 Young offender institutions in Scotland Stirling (city)