Peterhead Prison Program

Abstract

Peterhead Prison was built in 1888 to house Scotland’s convicts. The location, which juts out onto the North Sea, was chosen so as to enable use of convict labor in the building of a harbor of refuge for the fishing port of Peterhead. Granite was quarried about a mile away by the convicts and conveyed by a special railway line into the prison, where it was broken up, mixed, and poured with concrete to make the huge blocks for the breakwater wall. When finally completed in 1956, the wall enclosed the bay between the prison and the town. As legislation changed, so did the population of the prison, which during much of the second half of the 20th century held long-term prisoners who seemed unwilling to fit into the main prison system. So it was that in the 1980s, the name of Peterhead became synonymous with “hard men,” trouble, riots, hostage taking of staff, and arson. It was Scotland’s version of Alcatraz. Toward the end of that decade, its governor1 sought to change the prison and began a dialogue with prisoners. When I arrived to take over the prison in mid-1992, there were only a comparatively small number of these difficult prisoners left, although the staff who dealt with them were still wearing full body armor and helmets for that purpose. Many of the recalcitrant prisoners had been dispersed to other prisons and in their place had come an increasing number of vulnerable prisoners. In fact, the “hard” prisoners who had once ruled the prison were locked up and the vulnerable individuals who had been locked up for their own safety in other prisons were able to associate openly with others like themselves. In 1992, the maximum-security prison held only about 140 inmates. Peterhead Prison, built with extremely thick concrete and granite-shuttered walls, was reckoned to be the most secure accommodation available, and one hall (accommodation unit) was being kept as emergency accommodation for the rest of the prison system. A second hall, “C” hall, was in the process of being refurbished.