Craiginches

by Bryan Glennie

  The committee regularly got together to consider various approaches for help from various charities.

  We raised money at the prison all the time. We had a correct score competition every week and we always had money to fund various things.

  Every year as part of our annual fund-raisers we held a jumble sale and coffee morning in the local church hall in Torry. All the staff contributed to this, with a special thanks to Aitkens Bakery and our local corner shop beside the prison, which was run by Ian Law, who made huge contributions to these events. Some people would even just go to the coffee mornings just because we had Aitkens rolls. That was even before they had got the royal seal of approval! This helped swell the coffers for some wonderfully good causes.

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  Good Causes

  CLAN

  Charlotte Leys came in and volunteered for us at the prison. She would make the tea and coffee for the visitors when they came up. She was heavily involved with CLAN (Cancer Link Aberdeen and North). CLAN is a very worthwhile charity that is still going from strength to strength in Aberdeen. They offer help to cancer suffers of all ages and provide help and support for patients, families and their friends every step of the way. They provide an invaluable service and cover the whole of Aberdeen with patients in the islands of Orkney and Shetland.

  Charlotte approached us, as CLAN was looking to try and raise significant funds. They wanted to get enough money behind them to build their own purpose-built cancer facility, or CLAN House, as they wanted to call it. Their premises had initially been based in Justice Mill Lane in Aberdeen city centre. Their building had seen better days and wasn’t really suited to what their patients really needed, but at that point it was more a case of make do and mend, with all their monies going to make the lives of cancer sufferers and their families that bit easier.

  CLAN launched their buy-a-brick campaign to coincide with the charity’s own tenth birthday. They had set their initial target at £500,000 with the one aim to be able to buy and build the facility they and their patients so desperately craved.

  When raising money for CLAN was put to the committee it was fair to say it sailed through unopposed. It was given a resounding yes, knowing the impact it had and would make on so many of our lives.

  We did various different things to raise money for CLAN. One of the fund-raisers we did was to take out a stall at the outdoor Aberdeen Christmas Fayre. The event used to see Union Street closed and pedestrianised so people could walk up and down the market stalls. It sadly has now been surpassed by the International Christmas Market which has lots of overseas foods, delicacies and sweets sold, with a few added extras like giant fairground rides.

  It is fair to say things are a lot grander today. Back then we took a basic stall from which we would sell our T-shirts, tiepins and pens. They all had the Community Links logo on them so not only were we making money for good causes we were also raising awareness into the bargain.

  We also had other different attractions like a tombola and we sold clothing and merchandise.

  We raised more than £600 from our efforts at the Christmas Fayre. We presented CLAN with that initial cheque and got some very good newspaper coverage over it, with Allan MacKinnon from the committee seen handing the cheque over to CLAN coordinator Cathy Low in one of the photographs.

  Our efforts were applauded but every single person on the committee thought we could do that bit more. We felt there was still a bit of unfinished business. So we agreed to raise more money for CLAN through a never-ending list of fund-raising events we dreamed up at the prison.

  There was also a Friends of CLAN group set up, independent of the prison, who were going to continually raise funds for the charity. We decided we could give them a helping hand and at their inaugural meeting we handed them over a cheque for £1,000.

  The good thing was that CLAN continued to raise money and with the help of the North-east public were able to move into premises in Caroline Place in Aberdeen. It was still a long road in front if they wanted to build that purpose-built facility that had been the pipe dream with their buy-a-brick campaign.

  That dream finally became a reality in October 2011 when CLAN House was officially opened at 120 Westburn Road, just a short walk from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

  CLAN House now proudly offers specific areas for families and children, a wide range of therapies and outdoor space for visitors to enjoy, along with other health and well-being services.

  It is good to see that everybody’s good work and dedication has made it happen and that the prisoners and staff of Craiginches helped them take a small step on what has been a long but fruitful journey.

  BUS PUSH FOR THE BLIND

  The Royal National Institute of Blind People was another beneficiary of the Community Links Committee. We got involved with them through Stan Flett. Stan was partially sighted but was a very talented accordion player. He had his own band and played a number of gigs for us at Craiginches for the prisoners.

  I also met Stan regularly in and about the city. He was heavily involved with the RNIB. He would always keep me abreast of what they were up to and how they were looking to raise money.

  I didn’t say anything but the next time we had a committee meeting I decided to put the RNIB forward as a possible avenue for one of our future fund-raising ventures.

  The RNIB got the support it needed from the committee and our next question was how were we going to try and raise the funds? Somebody then came up with the rather bizarre idea of a bus push between the prisoners and the staff. That really was something different and innovative, even by our standards. So we got in touch with the bus operator at the time, which was Grampian Transport, and asked if this was a feasible venture, especially as we needed their help. They were great; they came back and said no problem and they would give us the loan of a couple of buses. I did jokingly ask them if they would take the handbrake off before we got them, certainly for us if not the prisoners!

  The next challenge was to find a suitable venue for our bus push and thankfully Grampian Transport stepped in to assist us again. They had links with the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre out at the Bridge of Don. That had a massive car parking area which was ideal for our needs – although I am sure that a bus push would never have come into the planners’ thinking when the AECC was first built!

  We got everything set up and transported the prisoners up to the AECC. I am certain a few of them had been putting plenty of work in at the gym before the big day.

  Anyway, we did the first bus push.We split into our teams, so there were four officers and four prisoners competing against each other. It was a very competitive affair, with neither side wanting to lose. It is fair to say we came off second-best. The prisoners had the upper hand, so I remember we said it was the best of three to try and save face. We did win the second and took it to a third. It was all in the balance but to add insult to injury the prisoners came out on top in the decider. It was good for the inmates. It gave them a wee boost and bragging rights over the staff for a few days when we got back to the prison. It is a small thing but it gave the place a buzz, although maybe that was more for the prisoners than the staff!

  OUR PRISON PICASSOS

  One of the educational courses some of the inmates were attending was painting. The classes were twice a week and were held by Graham Swanson, who was a lecturer at Aberdeen College of Commerce. The group of six prisoners started off doing various paintings and then gradually worked themselves up to a real decent level. So much so that they decided they would donate them to Ward 8 in the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.

  They painted a number of different pictures on the theme of television cartoon characters. Garfield was one of the final portraits along with his dog, Odie. They were really, really good and the prisoners also put their own message – ‘Goodnight kids’ – on them. It was a really nice touch and, in fairness, the children loved them. Ward 8 was for children recovering from infectious diseases. I was quote
d in the local press at the time saying: ‘The prisoners really wanted to help the children and hopefully the pictures will cheer them up while they are recovering.’ I think that proved to be more than the case.

  THE SUNDAY POST QUIZ KINGS

  A few members of the Craiginches staff, Allan Grant, Ernie Christie, Allan MacKinnon and Carol Bruce, got together to take on the weekly Sunday Post quiz for charity.

  The iconic weekly Scottish newspaper challenge saw teams get together to answer twenty general knowledge questions. For every answer they got right £2.50 would go to the charity or charities of their choice.

  The two groups chosen by our staff were Aberdeen Royal Children’s Hospital Ward 4, and Ward 31 at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

  The team had to submit their answers and they then appeared in the following weekend’s Sunday Post, marked, along with the answers and picture portraits of the team. Having seen their head shots, it would have been hard to distinguish if they were criminals or prison officers. I think in the end their hats just gave them the benefit of the doubt.

  They had questions of varying difficulty, for example: Name five kinds of pastry. Who was the manager of Liverpool Football Club before Kenny Dalglish? Who is the longest serving member on Coronation Street?

  These were all answers that the team got right.

  The questions they came unstuck on were: What’s reckoned to be Britain’s highest value car registration number? Who is the patron saint of tax men? And what word is a device used to muffle a trumpet and a swan?

  Maybe it wasn’t too much of a surprise they got them wrong!

  The team did really well, in fairness, and got seventeen out of twenty, earning around £42.50 to both charities, which we topped up with some aid from the Community Links fund.

  OPENING THE DOORS AND OFFERING CLEAN GETAWAY CARS

  We held a half-open day at Craiginches. We opened the doors and let the public in to see what exactly went on at HMP Aberdeen. It wasn’t quite access all areas because visitors couldn’t get near the prison wings but they were given access to the front building and entrance areas.

  We put on a slide show in the visitors’ room, and tea and coffee was served up in the prison staff room, while outside we had staff and trusted prisoners on hand to make even more money by washing cars in the car park – to make sure everybody got a clean getaway. We quite literally cleaned up that day. All the money we raised went to leukaemia and kidney projects at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

  We also did something similar when we held a slide show of our work in the prison and then followed it up with tea and coffee. Whilst visiting we washed the visitors’ cars.

  ENSURING IT WASN’T TORCHER FOR THE STUDENTS

  The Torcher Parade is famous in Aberdeen. It is an event where students dress up and deck out lorries with displays and disguises. The parade then goes through the city and sees students collect donations from the watching public.

  Most of the money is taken via student collection cans but one year they had forgotten to sort out the cans in advance. So, in a panic, they approached the prison to see if we would re-label their collection cans so they could get them ready in time. It was only a few days before the parade and they were really up against it. We got the prisoners involved and made the new labels and sealed the cans so the Torcher Parade could continue without a hitch. The students were delighted and from then on in came to us when it was time to re-label and use their cans.

  SMELLING OF ROSES

  We were approached by the world-famous Anderson’s Roses, who were based in the city. They needed all their roses cut ahead of the Aberdeen Rose Festival. They asked if we could give them some prisoners to assist them. It was a big job and we ended up sending out around four prisoners at a time to their fields at Maryculter to pick and prune roses for them.

  Anderson’s were to give the flowers away at the festival and also wanted some of them to decorate the horse-drawn carriage for that year’s Rose Queen. The artwork and flower arrangement for the carriage was made by the prisoners as well. Some of our prisoners may have had light fingers but that team was certainly green-fingered!

  Anderson’s also appreciated the prisoners’ work and made a donation to the Community Links fund.

  TORRY ARTS FESTIVAL

  The Community Links Committee, as you will all now be aware, tried to involve the local people of Torry with the prison as much as we could. Torry organised its own arts festival and we felt it was only right to get involved. It was a week-long event and the organiser, Ron Slater, wanted to get some of the prisoners and Craiginches officers involved in the Torry Arts Festival.

  So we started off by getting a football team together between the officers and the prisoners. We did a few weeks training and then we played a glamour friendly against a team from the Torry Youth Project. It was good because there was a fair bit of interaction.

  We also had more than our fair share of budding artists and the festival arranged for a lot of the work to be publicly displayed at the Torry Urban Adventure Project, along with some drawings and photography from pupils at the local secondary school, Torry Academy.

  There were also other events including arts and crafts, face painting, a quiz night, window painting, a darts competition, lace-making events and dance workshops.

  The highlight of the festival was on the Saturday when there was a sailing regatta on the River Dee and it was followed by a large festival, where over seven bands played in Torry’s Walker Park.

  The festival was a massive success and not only raised the profile of Torry but brought thousands of people into the area over the space of that week. It was amazing because the Torry Arts Festival had kicked off initially as a one-day event and suddenly it was now running all week.

  The good thing was that all the money raised from the week went to local independent groups and charities in Torry. So it was a win-win situation for all concerned.

  A LUCKY UNICORN

  Grampian Healthcare’s Unicorn Enterprises was a project that helped patients who were recovering from mental illness. They had an employment assessment and rehabilitation centre just off Great Western Road in Aberdeen. The problem was that their premises were really dull and dingy. They weren’t exactly open and welcoming and weren’t what you wanted to walk into, especially if you felt a wee bit down yourself.

  It was a big job because their building was quite big. Their problem was they didn’t have much money because they were a charity and all the revenue streams they did have went directly to their patient services. So that was when they got in touch with the prison and asked if we could do the work for them.

  They needed their building painted and generally cleaned up. We took three prisoners up and they did all the work for them over the course of a couple of weeks. We did that free of charge. Their building was simply in need of a makeover and we felt this was a group who genuinely needed our help.

  We got press coverage for that project. I remember there was an article along with a photograph of the three prisoners on various steps on a ladder.

  A spokeswoman for Unicorn was also quoted. She said: ‘This has really been a mutually satisfying venture. We had wanted the place to be painted for a while. We had thought of asking the prisoners and we are delighted we did because their work has been brilliant.’That particular article also gave some of my prison colleagues and the rest of the committee a good laugh as I was renamed Brian Glinny in it. Thankfully, the name never stuck! Anyway Mr Glinny was equally as delighted with the prisoners as myself. ‘These lads have been working like Trojans,’ he claimed. ‘This gives them a sense of responsibility towards the community. The patients have also enjoyed seeing some new faces around as well.’ By the time all the work was done their premises were completely transformed. It was hard to believe it was the same building. Just a simple coat of paint and tidy up and it looked completely different. The staff at Unicorn were delighted and a lot of the patients also commented on how it was much more of a welcoming p
lace than it had been in its previous guise.

  TALL SHIPS

  Aberdeen was lucky enough to see the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race in 1991. The Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race aims to encourage international friendship and to train young people in the art of sailing. It is an annual event that is held in European waters and sees old ships sail or race over several hundred nautical miles. The race was the brainchild of a retired London solicitor, Bernard Morgan, who came up with the idea of bringing young cadets and seamen together from all around the globe to compete in an event that eventually became reality in 1956.

  The race came to Aberdeen as a stop-off before it went on the final straight to Holland. The crew and their vessels stopped off in Aberdeen for three or four days. Thankfully, it wasn’t like in the past where former seafarers would come off their boats, get drunk, get arrested and thrown in prison. So Craiginches didn’t have to offer overnight accommodation this time around.

  Aberdeen really got involved in the event and it brought thousands of visitors to the city. The prisoners also wanted to get involved. I am certain they wanted to be part of the feel-good factor rather than trying to stow away to warmer climes.

  The famous Irish ship the Asgard II won the race that year, contributing most to the race and also by fostering international relations. We spoke to the prisoners and they wanted to present the Asgard II crew with something from their visit to Aberdeen. There was no point in giving them something decorative because the ship and their crew would be out on the high seas a lot. So they thought it would be better if they gave the crew something more practical. It was decided amongst the prisoners and staff that we would make them a present and then hand it over to their crew. We decided the best and most practical thing for the ship was bow fenders. For those, like myself, who aren’t very nautical, bow fenders are giant protective bumpers, which are hung over the side of a ship to stop it berthing or crashing against the jetty or harbour where it is docked. We made seven bow fenders.