The Inspectorate will continue to undertake inspections against our published Standards, but we also take account of what the Scottish Prison Service says it is doing, what it is aspiring to do and what we actually find to be happening. We do all of this by reference to relevant policy and strategy documents (where they exist) to Notices, Prison Rules, Service Agreements, legislative requirements, performance data and so on. The Inspectorate also sample processes, observe activities and talk to staff, prisoners and relevant others.
The Chief Inspector has a particular interest in a number of areas which, from his perspective as an independent observer, have a very obvious and important impact on prisoner treatment and conditions. The areas are addictions; the smuggling of illicit items into prisons (primarily drugs, PCDs and weapons); families; community partnerships; pre-release preparation and staff training and development.
These areas of special interest provide an additional focus during our inspections and over time, more detailed scrutiny of each will inform the Chief Inspector of the effectiveness of the work being done by the SPS to deliver positive outcomes in relation to them. Many of the outcome measures are already articulated by the SPS in the various source documents described above. Whilst the identification of areas of special interest is a departure from previous practice, the Chief Inspector sees this focus as helpful to him in informing an holistic view of the delivery of offender services in the round.