There are still seven children under the age of 18 in Polmont prison and young offenders institution, Justice Secretary Angela Constance has revealed.
She insisted prison is “no place for children” and said intensive work is underway so they can be moved elsewhere.
She was speaking in the wake of the death of Jonathan Beadle, 17, in Polmont – which is the only prison in Scotland to house young males aged between 16 and 21.
Ms Constance expressed her condolences to his family, saying while “losing a child is always extremely difficult and heartbreaking”, there is “an additional trauma and tragedy when a child is lost when they are within the care of the state”.
He was being kept in Polmont – a combined prison and young offenders institution near Falkirk – despite MSPs having recently passed legislation which prevents under-18s from being sent to such facilities.
READ MORE: Another teenager dies in Polmont amid delay in new legislation
The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act, which was enacted in June, sets out that 16 and 17-year-olds should be placed in secure accommodation rather than a young offenders institution.
Ms Constance told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Thursday: “I agree prison is no place for children.”
She said “care-based alternatives”, either in the community or involving a “deprivation of liberty” in secure accommodation, are “far preferable in terms of the care and treatment of our children”.
Such alternatives provide more support and education for children, Ms Constance added, which helps “ensure they can be reintegrated to society when that is appropriate”.
With the legislation now passed, she said ministers are “working at pace” to ensure the measures come in “as soon as it is safely possible”.
She said as of Monday, there were seven under-18s in Polmont, and they will be moved “no later than the week beginning September 2”.
She added: “There is intensive engagement and work between the Scottish Prison Service and also the providers of secure accommodation that will enable that early and orderly transfer of those children currently in Polmont.”
The facility has come under the spotlight following a number of deaths of young people in its care.
The findings of fatal accident inquiries into the deaths of three people at Polmont are currently awaited. William Lindsay, 16, and Katie Allan, 21, both ended their own lives there in 2018, while Jack McKenzie, 20, was reported to have died by suicide in September 2021.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel