Cornton Vale: The inside story

Governor admits many female inmates should not be in Jail -McLeish recommends radical change to legislation -Girls as young as 15 held in adult prisons SPECIAL REPORT By Rachelle Money "IT'S QUITE clear to me a lot of the offenders and those on remand should not be in prison." Hardly the words you would expect from an experienced prison governor of Scotland's only women's prison. It has taken Ian Gunn, governor of Cornton Vale Prison and Young Offenders Institution, just 18 months to come to this conclusion. He said he feels as though the focus of his work draws parallels with how a national mental health institution would operate. "It's a respite regime for those who find it difficult to cope with life," Gunn said. The shift in rhetoric from those at the top of Scotland's punitive justice system comes as little surprise. For... [read full story]