INVERNESS has had a jail for nearly 600 years, but Inverness College was only opened in 1960. Now it has been proposed that the latter be the solution for the former, even though experience shows that it was harder to keep students in their place than it was to keep prisoners.
With the college, which began life as the Technical College, or "the Tech", due to flit to the new Beechwood Campus, it offers space in the Longman Industrial Estate. But I gather those pursuing a new prison location have now decided that the college grounds would be too small for their purposes.
So the search goes on. The unlovely college building is, I am told by one developer, probably worth more money flattened than it is standing, and sadly it is going on the market at a difficult time, though it seems an ideal site for a major hotel or office complex.
Back in 2008 the Scottish Prison Service described Porterfield Prison as one of the most overcrowded in Scotland. But its search for a new venue for what it proposes to, rather grandly, call HMP Highland, has taken more time than expected. In January, it was told it could not build on a site beside the new campus.
I’m told a couple of alternative sites have now been identified but they will still have difficulty getting one over the line. Inverness is top of the funding queue but a site would need to be close to public transport.
Readers may recall I want the sheriff court removed from Inverness Castle so that it can be a tourism hub. The new prison location, wherever it be, could also have room for the courts, and such a "justice campus" is indeed what is being proposed, though the legal eagles will be extremelty reluctant to fly. Such a combination would improve the city’s carbon footprint with fewer Reliance vans flitting about, guzzling fuel. And the £40 million building cost would generate plenty of local jobs.
Provost William Inglis plays a positive part in the Inverness story. He was the driving force behind the setting up of both Inverness Royal Academy and the Northern Infirmary, persuading planters from Guyana to invest in both. He was also the man who raised funds to build a new courthouse, jail and steeple at the junction of Bridge Street and Church Street in 1791.
Sadly, he committed suicide in 1801 by throwing himself into the River Ness from the bridge, distraught by his banking clerk, and partner in his wine business, "doing a runner", as we say. Fraud and potential business collapse loomed for the visionary who had been Provost the year before.
The old Inverness Tolbooth had been built in 1436 by the local council at the same location for more efficient collection of tolls from traders. It, too, embraced a jail and courthouse, as was common in Scottish burghs at the time. Tolls could be collected at street fairs and markets, and anyone who misbehaved at such events was slung into jail.
But it was Provost Inglis’s new version which included the Burgh Steeple, which still stands. A minor earthquake along the Great Glen Fault in 1816 severely bent the top part of the steeple out of shape. Moving with all the pace of a drowsy elephant with bunions, the council took 12 years to have it repaired.
Next time you walk past, peer up at the weathercock and the larger of the two balls just below is reputed to contain a bottle of Millburn Whisky. Have a sniff.
Court records in 1736, seen by Inverness Field Club, show a bill of six shillings "to hang Peter Corbet". The next bill is for 32 shillings "to the officers to drink after the execution". They clearly had their priorities right in those days. There were even cells in the old Ness bridge and one disaster saw luckless occupants swept to their deaths.
In due course there was pressure for a larger court and jail and in 1831 the Duke of Gordon sold Castle Hill to the county council for such a site, with the burgh council chipping in £1500 towards the construction.
Crime, however, was doing a roaring trade and in 1902 Porterfield Prison was built on the hill across from the castle, its present location. Porterfield was at the time a rural parish and prisoners were actually used to build the prison, which had 49 cells
and its original population was 25 male and 10 female prisoners. Today there are 104 cells and around 150 occupants at any one time.
In its early years, Porterfield’s prisoners were used to maintain the building and its grounds and also to pick oakum, sew sacks and make mats. At weekends they did PE and attended Bible class. No TVs and such luxuries in those days. Like the guy who says: "In prison you can watch TV or play games, at work I can get sacked for that."
It was a tough place in the 60s and 70s when some of Scotland’s most notorious prisoners were sent north after causing trouble at other jails. Four of them - Jimmy Boyle, police killer Howard Wilson, Larry Winters and bank robber William MacPherson - were in the "Cages", a special unit unique to Porterfield, attacked by many for its harsh regime.
These four hard cases made a violent escape attempt from Porterfield in 1972 but were caught and gained an extra six years incarceration for escape and attempted murder of six prison officers, one of whom lost an eye. But the publicity sparked debate which decided that the method of dealing with difficult prisoners in Scottish jails, segregation and brutality, was a failure.
The keys of the "Cages" were finally put away for good in March 1994, by which time a more leisurely routine in a special unit in Barlinnie was gaining results and acclaim. Jimmy Boyle is now a sculptor and novelist, flitting between France and Morocco. I recall, as someone believing no-one is beyond redemption, moving a motion at Inverness District Council to do away with the "Cages" and nearly got my head in my hands. Boyle, however, later sent me a signed copy of his autobiography.
Now Porterfield is jampacked but the Hill district is so dense with houses there is simply no room for expansion. Provost Inglis would have shown the dynamism to make something happen. Surely a solution can be found in the next 12 months?
And then think of the value and potential options for the huge prime space left by Porterfield’s walls being pulled down after standing stern for 100 years.
