KEEP FAITH IN THE PRISONER WORK SCHEME

THE new governor of Saughton Prison today defended the practice of
releasing serious offenders to work in the community as police hunted
a murderer who has gone on the run from the jail.

David Back failed to return to the high-security prison after being
allowed out to attend a work placement at a support agency in Broomhouse.

The young Fifer was serving a life sentence for his part in the
torture and killing of volunteer community worker James McArthur, 27, in 2000.

The 23-year-old, from Methil, was on a work placement at the
Broomhouse Centre in Broomhouse Crescent when he disappeared at
around 1pm last Friday. He is the 14th person to go missing from
Saughton in the last five years, but the first to fail to report back
from a work placement for almost two years.

Police said there had been a number of possible sightings of Back in
Fife, where he grew up. A spokesman for Lothian and Borders police
said their counterparts in Fife were investigating.

Today, the prison's new governor, 56-year-old Dan Gunn, appealed for
the public to keep their trust in the system of letting prisoners
going on placements despite the latest escape. Speaking in his first
interview since taking over at Saughton in July, he told the Evening
News that allowing prisoners to work in the community was a vital
part of rehabilitating some of the country's most serious offenders.

He also spoke of his determination to tackle the amount of drugs and
mobile phones being smuggled into the prison, as well as improving
the education opportunities for inmates.

Police were today stepping up their hunt for Back, but Mr Gunn said
this incident should not detract from the good that can come of
prisoners going on placements. He said: "There is only a small number
of prisoners who go on placements and we are careful to vet them and
check up on how they are progressing.

"I would hope everyone would keep the faith with the placement idea
because ultimately it benefits society and prisoners if they can be
rehabilitated and make a contribution back to society. This is a rare
event and ultimately the prisoner is looking at adding time on his
sentence when he is caught."

A total of 13 prisoners - including seven murderers and a rapist -
went missing from Saughton between 2001 and 2004.

Nine of the convicts had to be recaptured by police or prison staff,
while the others surrendered to the authorities. The prison has since
tightened the risk assessments carried out before prisoners are
allowed out on placements - a move which appeared to end the flurry of escapes.

As governor at Polmont Prison, in Falkirk, which deals with young
offenders, for eight years, Mr Gunn observed he had seen many
familiar faces among the prisoners in Saughton.

One of the first challenges facing the Edinburgh-born prison chief,
he said, was to stop the flow of contraband coming into the prison.

After a big rise in seizures in recent years, prison officers at
Saughton are confiscating an average of two mobile phones a week,
although drugs remain the most common item smuggled inside. Inmates
are thought to be using the mobiles to commit crimes, such as
threatening witnesses, and to access pornographic and other internet sites.

Mr Gunn said visits were the main route for contraband coming into
the prison, but parcels thrown into the prison's grounds are
intercepted about once a week.

He said: "I don't want to sound complacent, but if people are
throwing stuff over the wall and into the jail then it might suggest
it is getting harder for them to get things in through other
channels. It is very unlikely that when they throw stuff over that it
will get to a prisoner and I think it is an act of desperation to use
that particular route.

"Staff have a particularly difficult job to do during visits, because
it is an important time for the prisoner and his visitor, but we need
to keep security tight as well."

The big smuggling issue is the supply of drugs, with prison staff
catching mothers using their own children as drug mules to get
heroin, cannabis and other illegal substances to addicts locked up inside.

In the past year, prison chiefs logged a total of 281 incidents where
prisoners were found to be carrying drugs.

Mr Gunn said: "We have to be very robust in the way we deal with
drugs and take all possible measures to reduce and ultimately stop
the supply of drugs into prison.

"It's an ongoing challenge but it has to be an intelligence-led
approach where we can target people, rather than a broad brush
approach that doesn't work.

"There are still some prisoners around who are very much against
drugs, it tends to be the older prisoners, but many of them abhor drugs.

"We have to remember that drugs are a major problem in the community
and a high percentage of our prisoners coming in have drug habits.

"We have to manage these people in the same way they would be managed
in the community. That means a health-led approach, and we are
looking at ways of possibly increasing methadone as well as our
addiction advice services."

Police chiefs are still investigating allegations made in November
last year that a guard smuggled up to UKP 1.5 million worth of drugs
hidden in microwave meals to prisoners.

Last week was a busy one for Mr Gunn with Back's disappearance on
Friday preceded by the slashing of a prisoner on Wednesday.

This was the second stabbing in the space of three weeks at the jail
and both attacks are understood to have involved improvised weapons
that inmates had made inside the prison.

Mr Gunn said he thought both attacks were a case of settling old
scores from outside the jail.

"We do not tolerate any act of violence at all," he said. "But the
problem is you can make weapons out of anything."

Much of Saughton has been rebuilt over the last few years, with
facilities to match the needs of a modern prison. But Mr Gunn said
Saughton is not immune to the overcrowding challenges that are facing
most of the country's jails.

He said: "We have some of the best prison accommodation in Scotland
in this prison, but we are nearly into record numbers in terms of prisoners."

Part of the next phase of redevelopment of the jail will see more
education and workshop facilities open in November.

It is this sort of facility that Mr Gunn feels is vital to ensure
that prisoners don't end up back in Saughton after their release.

He said: "We focus on life skills here - the biggest single factor in
reducing the risk of re-offending is employment and we have a very
strong focus on that.

"We give people the chance to learn trades such as plumbing and
joinery. Our job is not just within these walls and we have to work
in partnership with a whole range of organisations to make this a
community prison."