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Prisoners receive £100,000 injury pay-outs
PRISONERS in Scottish jails have been paid more than £100,000 in personal injury awards over the past two years, figures obtained by The Scotsman reveal.
Armed robber Robert Napier won £2,450 last year after he claimed he suffered an outbreak of eczema when slopping out at Barlinnie prison in Glasgow. His case prompted a flood of claims from other prisoners who say their human rights have been breached by having to slop out, and the Scottish Prison Service has set aside £44 million for compensation claims.
But The Scotsman has learned that dozens more personal injury awards have already been made to inmates in the last two years.
Compensation has been paid to prisoners whose property has gone missing, inmates who have been kept behind bars for too long and prisoners injured in accidents in jail.
In 2004-5, £90,789.53 was paid out, while the figure for the year 2005-6 was £18,600. In that time 38 claims were settled at an average of nearly £2,900 per prisoner.
A prison service spokesman refused to discuss individual claims but confirmed that some were for prisoners who had been kept in jail for longer than they should have been.
The spokesman said: "Personal injury awards will cover things like trips, slips, unlawful detention and personal items being destroyed.
"Some of the awards were for unlawful detention, when someone is kept in prison longer than was stipulated by the courts."
The figures reveal that more than £1,700 was also paid out to inmates whose personal property had been damaged, destroyed or stolen.
Prison officers yesterday said they were frustrated at the attitude towards their employers when staff are injured at work, while they were more ready to settle claims from inmates.
Derek Turner, of the Prison Officers' Association in Scotland, said: "If prison officers make a claim they do so because they have been to a solicitor who has told them they've got a better than 50/50 chance of winning. And yet the prison service seem to always take it to the wire. We have to spend so much time and money to get support for prison officers injured at work.
"But they seem more prepared to pay out to prisoners. It's frustrating. Officers feel let down by the prison service while there is less resistance to prisoner claims."
Margaret Mitchell, the Tory justice spokeswoman, said victims of crime would despair at the pay-outs. "People are going to jail and coming out richer at the end of the sentences than when they went in," she said.
But Kenny MacAskill, the SNP's justice spokesman, said it was right that prisoners were compensated for accidents in jail. "Prisoners lose their liberty, but they should not be subject to abuse, endangerment or unnecessary incarceration."
Source: Scotsman |
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