A north-east MSP has claimed a superjail’s decision not to re-open its youth wing will make it more difficult to rehabilitate criminals.
Labour’s Lewis Macdonald made the comments following the publication of an inspection report on YOI Polmont, near Falkirk, where offenders from Peterhead’s HMP Grampian were sent following riots two years ago.
They have still not returned, amid fears they will lose contact with their families.
The report found that “just over a third” of the prison population engaged in daily activities, and that a large number of the young men spent most of their time locked up in their cells.
Mr Macdonald has now made renewed calls for the Scottish Prison Service to return young offenders to Buchan.
He claimed such a move would allow the teenagers to be closer to family and give them a better chance of being rehabilitated back into the community.
He added: “Education and retraining are vital if these young men are going to be successfully rehabilitated.
“I have today raised my concerns with the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, Colin McConnell.
“I have pressed him to look again at the decision to hold young offenders from the north-east at Polmont as a matter of urgency, with a view to moving these young men to HMP Grampian as soon as possible.
“After all, if staff at Polmont are worried by having too many young offenders in the one place, the custom-built facilities at Peterhead for local offenders would seem to provide the obvious solution.”
The riot in which 30 young male offenders were involved took place just weeks after it opened two years ago in May 2014.
Prison chiefs have argued that their stay at Polmont would allow them to take advantage of new education and support programmes.
A spokesman said: “Polmont is currently sitting with about 500 young people in it and it was built for 700.
“The number of young offenders has declined significantly in the past four to five years which has led to a free hall at Polmont. We will return them to Grampian when it is deemed the right time to do so.”
