The Barlinnie Story

by Robert Jeffrey

  The refurbishment of A-Hall was completed in 2004 and the reopening signalled the end of slopping out in Barlinnie. A prison service report at the time said: ‘Many of the cells are very cramped with two prisoners living in them. A formal system of cell allocation should be introduced which identifies an acceptable amount of space for a prisoner to live in.

  ‘Windows in the cells are high and do not let in much natural light. They are grilled over and have broad slats on the outside. Whilst this has the benefit of stopping prisoners throwing litter out of the windows and making the exercise yard untidy, it also restricts the amount of natural light and fresh air that can get into a cell. The general standard of decoration in the cells is acceptable. Indeed the communal areas are much brighter than they were during the previous full inspection in 2003. This makes the hall a much lighter, less oppressive environment. There is very little space for interviewing available in the hall. A few cells have been converted into interview rooms but getting access to them can be difficult because the demand from specialist staff is great. This should be addressed.’

  This fairly recent report is a down to earth, realistic picture of life in the jail, a life nothing like as cushy as outsiders tend to think. ‘New showers and ablutions were fitted in the old slopping out areas during refurbishment. There are an adequate number of showers for the population and, two years after coming into use, they are still maintained to an excellent standard. Outside exercise is taken in a large yard adjacent to the hall. All prisoners can exercise in the yard at the same time. The yard is spacious and clean. The recreation room consists of snooker, pool, table tennis and a television. There are also four telephones, two of which do not have canopies. The room is a converted workshop and whilst it is quite bleak it is clean and functional.’

  The week after the inspection, A-Hall introduced a servery system for meal times. This is a significant event, moving as it does away from the old plastic trays. Inspectors returned to see how the new system worked. The report said that, ‘The improvements in the quality and presentation of the food were obvious. Prisoners commented very favourably on the new system. A rotating system is in place to allow all prisoners a fair chance at selecting their first choice. It is intended to introduce an advance choice menu system in the near future. This will bring A-Hall into line with most of the rest of the prison.

  ‘There is no opportunity for communal eating in the hall. Prisoners collect their meals and return to their cell to eat. Cells are locked while they eat. The cramped nature of many of the cells means that many prisoners eat their meals sitting on their bed with their plates on their laps.’

  The inspectors then turned their attention to B-Hall and again the overcrowding was highlighted. ‘This hall holds convicted prisoners in 191 cells on four floors. Two hundred and seventy prisoners were living in 181 of these cells at the time of inspection. Many of the cells were said to be very cramped with two prisoners living there.’ Another complaint was that the general standard of decoration in the hall is poor. ‘The hall does not have a painting and decorating work party, which might help to improve standards.’ It was pointed out that other prisons have used prisoners to resolve this problem, ‘most successfully in Aberdeen where they have redecorated the entire accommodation area.’

  The B-Hall recreation area at the time of this inspection was the Activities Centre in the industrial complex. ‘The room is a converted workshop and is adjacent to a well-stocked library with an extensive range of books, magazines, periodicals and computer games.’ B-Hall was ahead of A-Hall in the business of serving food as it had now introduced a servery system for meals. ‘This is a major improvement. Prisoners commented very favourably on the new system. An advance choice menu system is also now well established and works well. Again there was no communal eating, a civilizing influence, and prisoners collected their food and returned to their cells to eat. The doors were locked while they were doing so.’ Officers in B-Hall said that because there wasn’t enough time at the weekend to collect the plates and cutlery from prisoners to be washed in the hall dishwasher, they used paper plates instead. ‘Prisoners do not get the opportunity to get rid of the dirty paper plates before being locked up.’

  The story of C-Hall, the main remand hall, painted a similar picture though the records showed that there could be a hundred movements a day in this hall: 50 in, 50 out. Again there was overcrowding.

  D-Hall was slightly different in that it has four separate sections, all of which have access to in-cell sanitation. All prisoners have access to time in the fresh air and to inside recreation, as well as the opportunity to visit the Activity Centre. ‘Each section has a minimum of two telephones. All meals are served from the new servery trolleys: food was hot and well presented.’ Included in the four sections is ‘the Residential Care Unit, which has 42 cells. On the day of inspection there were 43 prisoners living there. These are usually short-term prisoners who have mental health issues or require some form of support. There is one disabled cell, which was occupied. There is a link with the Health Centre and prisoners can self-refer. The Unit is occasionally used as a ‘stepping stone’ back into the mainstream system. The facility itself is maintained to a good standard of decoration and cleanliness and relationships between staff and prisoners are good. However, prisoners within this regime spend a significant part of their day locked up in their cells due to a lack of opportunity to participate in any work or structured activity.’

  Anyone sent to jail for a sexual offence can be in constant danger from other inmates: hardened criminals who would kill your granny, as they say in Glasgow, are remarkably, consistently, and sometimes violently unforgiving of such offenders. In D-Hall the Sex Offender Unit had 44 cells and on the day of inspection 65 prisoners were living there. ‘There was a good atmosphere within the area and both staff and prisoners reported positive relationships. On the day of inspection there were a large number of prisoners locked in cells, despite the fact that education was on offer.’ The other two sections in D-Hall contain a range of prisoners serving different lengths of sentence and the report concluded, ‘Overall, although prisoners and staff were generally content with facilities and regime in D-Hall there is little to do and prisoners spend much of their time locked within their cells. This was due to lack of work opportunities and structured activities being available. This should be addressed.’

  Finally to E-Hall, which fulfils two very important functions for Barlinnie. It houses the First Night Centre on the top floor and the other three floors house most of the prisoners on protection. The First Night Centre is a specialized area that performs a vital service. The shock to the system that a first night in a jail like Barlinnie produces cannot be underestimated, especially for someone like a white collar criminal who has no experience of doing time and is not a member of a family or a community, like too many in Glasgow, where the clang of cell doors behind you is regarded as an inevitable rite of passage. To be stripped, searched, your belongings removed, scrubbed clean and given prison clothes and dowsed with the grim reality that you have completely lost your freedom and entered a nightmare world inhabited by a curious mixture of old lags, young tearaways, morose loners, dangerous characters and the very occasional enthusiastic self-educator is an experience that can induce deep depression and mental ill health in even the strongest of personalities. A humane approach here by the staff and the understanding that it can take months, perhaps years, for a prisoner to come to terms with his fate is important. And Barlinnie has made giant steps in this respect.

  Most of the report’s observations also apply generally to E-Hall. Food takes on an unnatural importance when you are imprisoned. It is not five-star fodder. In E-Hall prisoners have a pre-selection choice menu system (except those in the First Night Centre). According to the report everyone is served his meal from a servery.

  Letham Hall is a prefabricated building which acts as the local ‘top-end’ hall for Barlinnie, a home for the good guys, the non troublemakers who
have, over the years, accepted and adapted to the prison regime. Letham houses convicted prisoners who have been assessed as suitable having been through A-Hall, B-Hall, D-Hall or E-Hall. It does not hold any prisoners on protection. There are no special cells.

  The day the report was made there were 64 out of 76 cells in use in five sections on two floors, three upstairs and two downstairs. ‘Only one section in the hall has single occupancy, although all of the cells are the same size. The prisoners in the single cells are designated to these cells because they work in certain work parties that require some shift working. Many of the cells are very cramped with two prisoners living there. Prisoners have a key to their own door and can access night sanitation and shower facilities during lock up periods. The hall is segmented into the five sections for control purposes by the use of grille gates during these periods. There is CCTV coverage in all communal areas. Windows in the cells in Letham Hall are large and not blocked in any way and therefore let in a lot of natural light. The general standard of decoration in the cells is good. However, interview space is limited although most of the prisoners are out at work most of the day so a quiet area can usually be found. There is a shower and ablutions area in each section. Whilst there is an adequate number of showers some were in need of repair or replacement.’

  These ‘top end’ cons in Letham have a pre-selection choice menu system but again the food was taken away to be eaten in a cell. On Letham the report concluded, in rather humane manner that, ‘Given its status as the local “top end”, the opportunity to dine in association should be offered.’ I like the use of the word dining in this context, but no matter how it has improved over the years it is not fine dining as defined by the celebrity chefs. But it is not ‘chew and spew’, as the Australians say, either. In the old days the menu was chalked on to a blackboard – now prisoners get a paper menu with multiple choices.

  One of the blackboard menus of the 1980s I came across was typical:

  Breakfast

  Porridge [naturally!] and milk.

  Grilled sausage

  Tea, bread and marg

  Dinner

  Liver and onions

  Or mince pie

  Or fried chicken

  Potatoes or chips, veg

  Semolina

  Tea

  Cheese and onion flan, baked beans

  Tea, bread, marg, jam

  Supper

  Half pint tea, fruit scone.

  This contrasts with what is described as ‘Ordinary Summer Menu 2009’, the latest on offer. Each prisoner gets a sheet with multiple choices; the meals mentioned here are from the ‘blue menu’ for week three in the month. The inmates are urged to fill in their name, prison number, and cell location in the appropriate boxes. They are given a warning that any menus unmarked or covered in graffiti will result in the miscreant arbitrarily being given choice No. 3. Here is the menu for one Thursday.

  Breakfast [shock horror, no porridge]

  Beverage pack – morning roll, sunflower spread, 250ml One Milk, bran flakes, preserve portion.

  Lunch [now changed from the more down-market ’80s term ‘dinner’]

  Three choices of main course:

  Chicken and mushroom pie, potatoes and peas, OR

  Turkey salad sandwich pack, OR

  Fried rice and Chinese curry sauce.

  [The final choice has an indication beside it that it is suitable for fish-eating vegetarians and the explanation that fish-free vegetarians will be offered an alternative when fish is the vegetarian choice.]

  Portion of fresh fruit

  Tea

  Soup of the Day,

  Three choices of main course :

  Sweet and sour pork and boiled rice, OR

  Gammon steak, potatoes and diced carrot, OR

  Two rolls and cheese portion.

  Pineapple slices and custard.

  On paper it sounds good enough, but in institutional surroundings the food is in reality pretty basic. But suitable meals for inmates, often bored out of their mind and with horrific diets when out on the streets, is important. At least there are not regular helpings of a Glasgow salad – a plate of chips. Reasonable meals are vital in keeping prisoners in health, the place calm and in helping good relationships with the officers. The little poem/song from many years ago, mentioned elsewhere in the book, ‘The Barlinnie Hotel’, made reference to the fact that jailbirds didn’t lay eggs in the Bar-L. But times change and now there is the treat of a boiled egg on Saturdays and Sundays. But in the week’s menus quoted there was no porridge. Maybe now we need a new cliché – doing cereal.

  Printed menus for every prisoner, yes. But there is no sign of a wine list. But that doesn’t mean the Bar-L is a totally dry area. In every prison in the world it is the ultimate challenge – apart from escaping! – for the inmates to make some secret hooch. After all, booze is a major factor in how many of the denizens of the Bar-L ended up there. In the booze-fuelled crime stakes there is every chance that Glaswegians would come out as world champions. And the ingenuity that goes into smuggling chemical stimulants into the prison is also channeled into making hooch from the ingredients found inside the prison. Pizza bases and bread generally can have the last traces of yeast squeezed out of them and with stolen sugar, and other ingredients nicked from the kitchens, some simulation of an alcoholic beverage can be produced. It might not get into the good wine or whisky guide but prison hooch can satisfy one important drinking criterion – it can get you out of your mind.

  Down the years there have been various attempts at illicit breweries in the prison, but the daddy of them all came in October 2008 when 25 litres of potent homemade hooch was discovered in Scotland’s biggest prison. The vile tasting stuff – made from oranges, ketchup, bread, sugar and water – was uncovered in the aforementioned Letham Hall, home to the trusties. It was a huge haul. A prison source told the Sun: ‘Some of the cons who make it have become real experts – they think they are Steve McQueen and James Garner producing their moonshine behind closed doors.’ But he added the obvious caveat that the more you make the harder it is to hide it. And the drunker the cons get the more obvious it is what is going on. You could say success breeds failure in this specialist area.

  Considering the links between Barlinnie and booze it is no real surprise, just good marketing, that at one stage you could pop into the Drovers pub in Gallowgate and have a wee swallow of what was called Barlinnie Bevvy, a nice little whisky with pride of place on the gantry of this legendary pub. The locals took to it like ducks to water, after all it was drink, but when news of this unusual label filtered down the road to the prison itself it was not well received. Indeed, according to the word on the streets, a rather terse letter was sent from HMP Barlinnie, Lee Avenue, Riddrie to the Drovers. But it seems any rough waters whipped up by the sale of Barlinnie Bevvy were swiftly smoothed with the delivery to the then prison staff of a package that was alleged to have given off a loud clink of glass when moved. If only all the Bar-L worries would go away so easily.

  7

  FAMOUS FACES AND DIRTY UNDERWEAR

  What do you expect when one of the most famous men in the world turns up as a visitor? Huge crowds, of course, and that’s what happened when Nelson Mandela travelled from South Africa to meet Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, on a diplomatic excursion to see for himself, in June 2002, how the alleged mass murderer was being treated. Nelson Mandela also discussed a campaign for the Libyan to serve his sentence in a prison in his own country. Everyone, but everyone, who has met Mandela speaks of his kindness, gentleness and good manners. Even on a commercial flight when people cannot resist breaking into his privacy, he has time to chat and take a genuine interest in his fellow passengers. A little vignette from his Barlinnie visit underlines the humanity of this remarkable historic figure, a man who himself had spent long years in jail on Robben Island. Most of the crowd hoping to meet him at the prison were positioned around the recept
ion and the main gates.

  Everyone on the staff wanted a glimpse of the great man. The wellwishers were rows deep. But as he passed through the throng, Mandela stopped for a moment to survey the scene. He looked to the edge of the crowd and spotted a young prison officer right at the back. He said, ‘You, sir, step down here,’ and when the surprised young officer made his way to the front Mandela shook his hand warmly, giving him a moment he would never forget. Humbly, Nelson Mandela remarked that he, too, knew what it was like to be in the back row and not really noticed. Incidentally the use of the word ‘sir’ is something of a Mandela trademark – he uses it all the time. Maybe it’s a hangover from his own jail time. The great leader then went into the jail to meet al-Megrahi, who was still declaiming his innocence, and to inspect his quarters. But he politely declined an offer by the Governor to show him the cellblocks as distinct from Gaddafi’s Café, as the area where al-Megrahi was held was nicknamed in the press. Nelson Mandela had seen enough tiny jail cells to last him a lifetime!

  The nickname of the quarters which held al-Megrahi doesn’t seem far off the mark. There is real reluctance in official quarters to confirm or deny conditions in the ‘café’. Since al-Megrahi was convicted at a special court held under Scottish law at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands of killing 259 passengers and crew on Pan Am flight 103 and 11 residents of Lockerbie in 1988 the case has been a diplomatic minefield with Britain and Libya and the United States often in conflict and continually changing stances. The case was even important enough to bring UN general secretary Kofi Annan to Glasgow on a trip out east to the prison. No wonder officialdom gives a body swerve commenting on the conditions Megrahi was held in in Barlinnie. But you can’t just brush away the Scottish Press. And towards the end of 2003 the News of the World reporters, digging around to prove or disprove the street talk about the café, struck newspaper gold. The Libyan described by the red top as a 51-year-old monster was shown in pictures to be luxuriating in a suite with a kitchen and sitting room and a bedroom with ensuite toilet. At this time, it should be noted, some in the Bar-L were still slopping out.