Female prisoners will be housed alongside child offenders this summer.
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson will today announce that more than half of the daughters, mums and sisters currently housed at Cornton Vale will be moved to HMP Polmont over the summer.
Government justice sources said the move to the youth prison’s newest accommodation, Blair House, will offer improved facilities for women in custody.
This will allow work to begin on ministers’ plans to reshape how Scotland deals with female prisoners and reduces reoffending.
Mr Matheson is also expected to confirm that construction on the new national prison in Cornton Vale is expected to begin in 2018.
A large number of spaces are available at Polmont because a reduction in youth reoffending has seen the number of under 18s in custody fall by 70% over the last decade.
SNP ministers want to replicate this kind of success with female offenders and will take “smarter approaches” towards women committing criminal acts.
These include housing prisoners in smaller community base units closer to their families and providing drug and alcohol treatment.
Scottish Government to put female prisoners in with child offenders
