Prison chiefs have “lost track” of mobile phones handed out to inmates at jails across Scotland.
Staff are struggling to recover devices first distributed during lockdown, while replacement landline phones are being installed in cells throughout the estate.
Perth prisoner James Marshall, caged for a horrific knife attack in Fife, is one of the first to be prosecuted for having a mobile behind bars since the recent amnesty.
The sex offender’s lawyer Martin McGuire said phones – introduced as part of a £4.1 million Scottish Government plan to help prisoners keep in touch with loved ones – were circulated by inmates and many have now disappeared.
The Scottish Prison Service confirmed the hunt for the missing devices is ongoing.
Caught red-handed
The contentious mobile phone scheme is being scrapped after the devices were misused thousands of times by prisoners.
Perth Sheriff Court has seen an abundance of cases involving inmates caught with contraband SIM cards inside their authorised phones, as cons attempt to bypass strict time and data restrictions.
The mobiles have also been used to organise crimes on the outside.
Fiscal depute Duncan McKenzie told Perth Sheriff Court landline phones were being fitted inside cells up and down the country at the end of the summer.
“The devices have restrictions of 200 minutes per month,” he said.
“As a result of this, mobile phones are being recovered.”
Mr McKenzie said at HMP Perth, letters explaining the changes were distributed to every cell on August 23.
Inmates were ordered to hand back their SPS-issued devices.
The prosecutor said that 27-year-old James Marshall’s cell was visited by officers at 1pm on September 5.
“The accused had a phone in his hand, which was seized,” he said.
Unaccounted for
Mr McGuire, defending, confirmed the phone had been originally issued to his client by the prison service.
“Basically, they have lost track of these devices,” he said.
“After the phones were issued, many were circulated and shared by prisoners, and now many simply cannot be accounted for.”
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon told Marshall he had failed to comply with the prison service’s amnesty and noted he had an analogous conviction from 2021.
He ordered the inmate to spend an extra four months behind bars.
Marshall was jailed for 27 months in 2021 for stabbing a friend in the face with a Stanley blade, before sexually assaulting a schoolgirl.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “This summer, a new hard-wired in-cell telephony system was rolled out across the Scottish prison estate and prison-issued mobiles withdrawn from use.
“These have now either been returned voluntarily or are being recovered through searches and the use of all tactical and technological means.”
Shadow justice secretary Russell Findlay MSP has accused the First Minister of “squandering” millions to distribute mobile phones to prisoners.
He said: “It comes as no surprise that this ridiculous SNP scheme, which is typical of their weak justice agenda, is continuing to cause problems for hard-working prison staff.
“The government and prison service must ensure that the new in-cell phones are safe and secure.”
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