A small charity is to document the social history of Scotland's largest jail in a ground-breaking project.

Glasgow's HMP Barlinnie is 130 years old this year, and the project aims to contact former staff and prisoners who may have stories to tell about its role in society in past decades.

The initiative will also involve schoolchildren from Smithycroft Secondary School, which lies almost adjacent to the prison, and other neighbouring primary schools.

Theatre Nemo uses creative arts to emphasise the positive contribution that people with mental health problems can make to society, and supports people affected by mental ill-health, their families and carers. The Heritage Lottery Fund is donating £9700 towards the research.

The charity has an established history with Glasgow's HMP Barlinnie, where it runs courses, including workshops on Japanese drumming, painting, drama and animation.

The new project, to be announced at the charity's AGM on Saturday, will result in a documentary film, Who Built Barlinnie?, which will examine the social and human history of the notorious prison. It will explore how the modern-day jail compares with the Barlinnie of 130 years ago, and examine changes in the types of crimes people were incarcerated for, and the social backdrop against which they were committed.

The aim of the project, to be carried out during 2013, is to tell the story of ordinary citizens, why they became embroiled in criminal acts, and to consider what lessons can be learned from the past.

While books and TV programmes have often examined the history of the prison, Theatre Nemo chief executive and founder Isabel McCue said these had often tended towards the sensational.

She said: "There have been a lot of histories of Barlinnie, but they have been all about the famous and infamous people.

"This is not about the Jimmy Boyles. It is about ordinary, working-class people, often living in poverty, and what would have happened to them and their families as a result of their imprisonment.

"We want to compare their experience with what it is like today. We hope it will shed light on what we are doing wrong and how we can make it better.

"But the project will also look at some of the positive work that is going on in prisons and what it is trying to do.

"Whenever something goes wrong, prisons always get bad press, but we want to enlighten people about some of the positive work which is going on."

Ms McCue said the initial project aimed to produce a film which could be shown in independent cinemas or at private screenings.

However, she said the filmmakers would need people to come forward volunteer their stories.

"We will be doing a lot of research and asking current staff for their experiences, but we also want to find people who have worked a long time in there or been in prison, or the families of prisoners," she said.

"We want people to come to us with stories of what it was like."

Derek McGill, the governor of HMP Barlinnie said: "We are delighted to be working with Theatre Nemo on this project.

"We are also trying to involve the local secondary and primary schools who can link in, without coming into the prison, as the prison is part of Riddrie.

"Retired and older officers, with press cuttings, and previous prisoners with experience going back many years will be asked along too."