HM Prison Perth

Long view of HM Prison Perth (4 storey, L-shaped building in centre)

HM Prison Perth, situated a half-mile south of the town centre, is a large and sombre mass of buildings that cover about 18 acres. The original portion was erected in 1812 to serve as a depot for French prisoners of war captured during the Napoleonic Wars. It was capable of holding 7,000 such prisoners, over whom a daily guard of 300 soldiers was mounted, supplied by 3 regiments stationed in the barracks and town. It served as a military prison however for only about two years.

The prison was remodelled for its present civilian purpose and re-opened on 30 March 1842 in two wings. A third wing was added in 1853, and a fourth in 1859. In 1859 a new wing was built to accommodate 58 juveniles but this was afterwards adapted for the reception of 58 male criminal lunatics. A new hospital for the accommodation of 30 female lunatics was opened on 1 June 1881. This may have been the hospital where Amy Louisa Wighton was born in 1891. At the time that JMW was living in Perth, the prison was composed of Hall A, Hall B, Hall C, Hall D, and Hall E which combined had a capacity for 504 prisoners.

Currently, HM Prison Perth is Scotland's oldest occupied prison. It houses short term adult male prisoners (those prisoners serving under 4 years), mainly fine defaulters and those on remand from the courts of Angus, City of Dundee, Perth & Kinross and the northern part of Fife. The prison holds a lot of long term prisoners serving sentences of 4 years or more. There is also a secure unit for category A prisoners who are serving sentences of life imprisonment. The prison no longer has as D-Hall or an E-Hall. The old C-Hall which housed the French prisoners in 1812 (shown in the picture above left) was knocked down in 2006 to make way for a new C Hall which can house 365 prisoners. The entire prison now holds 700.

Sources

Various web sites, including:

History of Perth Prison: http://www.alternative-perth.co.uk/perthprison.htm

HM Prison Perth: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/features/featurefirst7977.html

Perth: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/towns/townhistory155.html