New figures have revealed staff at a north-east super jail have been assaulted by inmates more than 60 times in the last three years.
The incidents have been highlighted through a Freedom of Information request made to the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) just two months after the trial of six men accused of rioting at Peterhead’s HMP Grampian.
The £140million state-of-the-art facility was opened in March 2014.
But only two months later, inmates were able to take over an entire section of the prison and caused about £150,000 worth of damage.
During the course of the 15-hour siege, the Peterhead jail’s new facilities were destroyed and officers were attacked, as the prelude to guards storming the wing, dressed in riot gear and armed with Pava spray.
The incident was the first time the weapon had ever been used in a Scottish jail.
The Freedom of Information request now reveals that, in that same year, 16 members of staff were assaulted.
That number rose to 29 in 2015.
And last year, 18 members of SPS staff were attacked.
All the attacks resulted in minor or no injuries. But the number ranks the super jail – which has subsequently been dubbed a “white elephant” by local councillor Alan Buchan – amongst the worst in Scotland.
Of the 14 other prison estates SPS manages, only two had more reported incidents of minor assaults since 2014.
They were Corton Vale, which had 80 incidents, and Barlinnie, 69.
In the three years prior to HMP Grampian launching, and while the Victorian-era HMP Peterhead was still in use, only five incidents of assault were reported.
A spokesman for the SPS described serious assaults as “a fight or assault which results in any individual receiving specified injuries: fractures, internal injuries, serious cuts, lacerations which require four or more stitches, sutures or staples; stab or puncture wounds, severe bruising, severe scalds or burns, sever general shock or any other injury which requires treatment and admission to an external hospital as an inpatient, but excluding admission for observation”.
Since last year’s riot at HMP Grampian, its youth wing has been taken offline.