Foreword
Among the fifteenth-century carvings of Rosslyn Chapel, visitors looking carefully will find a depiction of the seven virtues, and amongst these seven virtues they will find visiting prisons. While the current system of visiting committees for Scottish prisons does not have quite such a long history, it does have deep roots in the era of Victorian civic and social reforms. This is the first review of prison visiting committees in Scotland of which this group is aware since they were established in 1876.
The fundamental purpose of visiting committees has always been to open up prisons to wider scrutiny. Over almost 130 years much has changed. But the review group found that visiting committees continue to provide a unique community-based means of ensuring that the people detained on our behalves in prison are decently treated, regardless of what they have done. Visiting committees, whose members are all volunteers, should be the community's eyes and ears in the prison system.
More than that, the review group saw a vital developing role for visiting committees, closely linked to the new community justice authorities, helping to inform the debate on how what happens in prisons can contribute to reducing reoffending.
But to achieve this, it is clear that aspects of the existing arrangements for visiting committees do need to change radically. There are also implications for committees' own day-to-day practice. This review has benefited throughout from the active input of the Association of Visiting Committees and many of the recommendations are based on existing good practice. A key aim of this review is that this good practice is adopted consistently through Scotland.
Scotland's criminal justice system is undergoing radical reform to support safer, stronger communities. The review group began its task with a sense of vision that modernised visiting committees could play a valuable role in supporting this reform. The report which follows sets out how we believe that can be achieved.