The interim governor of Perth Prison has welcomed her return to the penal establishment where she “learned her trade.”
Brenda Stewart took over the role in September last year and yesterday told The Courier she feels a raft of measures put in place to help some prisoners with addiction problems have paid dividends.
Mrs Stewart, 53, began her prison career in the mid-1980s at Cornton Vale and previously worked at Perth in a junior governor role, followed by stints at Glenochil and Low Moss.
She says she “learned her trade” at Perth Prison and described the establishment as a “proper community facing” prison.
“This prison is part of the community and is still very much the same,” she said.
“Perth has a high number of remand prisoners and being a local prison it also has a number of short-term inmates.
“The prison is very much familiar to me. What I really like about Perth and it doesn’t happen in every prison is how well it is accepted as part of the community.”
Mrs Stewart feels this can be attributed to the fact Perth Prison has been at the same site since the 1800s.
“The prison is part of the city, which is really quite incredible when you think about it, as Perth is now the oldest prison which is occupied by inmates in Scotland,” she added.
“I worked here 25 years ago and when I came back so many people said ‘hello’ to me and remembered me.
“Perth Prison remained the same for years and it was only in the late 1990s it saw the redevelopment and it is now a fit-for-purpose prison.”
She continued: “The prison has changed significantly internally, and that’s great as it makes better working conditions for staff and prisoners.
“It wasn’t that long ago that the prison had slopping out, with conditions being very, very basic.
“Certainly slopping out made for unpleasant conditions for everyone.
“Also, when I was here in the late 1980s, there was a lot of trouble in a number of prisons, including Perth, so it was quite a challenging time then.”
Mrs Stewart says Perth Prison currently has around 630 inmates, who are “all individual men” with “different issues.”
“A lot of them have mental health issues, and there are people who struggle with alcohol and addictions,” she added.
“We also have people who still wish to be involved in criminal behaviour, so Perth Prison is like a complex community.
However, we’ve put a lot of time into helping those with addictions a significant amount of work.”