By Stefan Morkis

THE GOVERNOR of Castle Huntly prison near Longforgan last night said security would be tightened in the wake of claims prisoners had been seen having sex in public.

At a stormy public meeting in Longforgan Village Hall, Ian Whitehead denied prisoners and their partners have been having sex in the prison’s visitors’ centre, which can been seen from houses in the village.

He also refused to rule out the possibility of further expansion at the prison in the future, saying it would be a matter for the Scottish Executive and its justice minister to decide.

Over 70 people crammed into the hall for the meeting, which was also attended by several officers from the prison and Superintendent Iain Bell and Inspector Jim Leslie from Tayside Police.

Mr Whitehead denied categorically that prisoners and their partners had been having sexual intercourse on prison grounds.

He also refuted claims prison officers were lounging around on the grass rather than monitoring visits as they are supposed to do.

“We have had no reports of that whatsoever,” he said.

“When there are visits going on there are always members of staff there. They are not lounging around on the ground, they are supervising the visits.”

However, Mr Whitehead did say that in case procedures had not been followed correctly in the wake of any complaints, a change in the way they are dealt with has already been implemented.

Villagers were told they could now call the prison’s guardroom and action would be taken immediately to resolve any problems, and he urged people to contact the prison to report any problems that did arise.

Mr Whitehead also announced, to the audience’s delight, that a new visitors’ centre was to be built in the grounds of the prison, so the present building, in full view of many villagers’ homes, would no longer be in use.

The new visitors’ centre is expected to be completed by the end of October and will be sited alongside the new accommodation blocks built for the extension of Castle Huntly.

“If it had been up to me, we would never have had a visitors’ centre in the middle of houses,” he said.

“We will now be able to put the visitors’ centre inside the grounds. It makes the whole operation, from my standpoint, a whole lot simpler so hopefully it is a case of win-win.”

He also said funding had been approved to install a CCTV system covering the prison grounds.

Despite the changes in security measures, which will also mean prisoners going out on weekend leave must be collected from the prison building itself rather than in the village, Mr Whitehead was adamant that the role of the prison would not change—and that the prisoners had to be given a degree of independence.

He said as an open prison its role was to help prepare offenders for a return to the outside world and that meant they had to be given a measure of freedom.

Many Longforgan residents are already outraged at plans for the expansion of the prison and fear that doubling its population will result in more prisoners absconding.

Mr Whitehead responded by saying he saw no reason why the rates should increase and it was extremely unlikely anyone who absconds would hang around in Longforgan waiting to be caught.

He also said in many cases people absconded because they feared they had done something which could see them returned to a closed prison.

“Most people who abscond do so when they are on leave, so are not in the prison and most often they are found at their home address.

“When people abscond we send people to find out why they have done that and they often say it is because they fear they have failed a drugs test, or say they owe somebody money.”

He said the prison would also have further staff to offer support to recovering addicts, whether addicted to drugs or alcohol, and it would not implement any blanket ruling that if somebody failed a drugs test they would automatically be sent back to a closed prison.

Addressing staffing concerns relating to the prison’s expansion, he denied that only two extra staff had been taken on and although he refused to put a number on the total, he said the staffing arrangements would be reviewed six months after prisoner numbers have risen.

Mr Bell also reassured residents about crime levels in the village.

He said that although there was a perception that there had been a rise in the number of crimes, there had actually been a drop from 14 calls to the police in the first four months of 2004 to just six calls in the first four months of this year and none of those calls had related to the activities of prisoners.