Why Scotland's newest prison has colourful walls

Scotland's newest prison is due to be completed later this year.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) says HMP Highland will allow it to better serve communities in the Highlands and Islands.

But as the £209m jail takes shape on a site in Inverness, its colourful exterior has been drawing some attention.

Bands of orange, blue and yellow are a feature of a long, curving wall and also the jail's entrance.

The new jail is being built to replace HMP Inverness, which is one of Scotland's oldest prisons.

Now more than 120 years old, the Victorian-era complex near the city centre has had long-running problems with overcrowding.

HMP Highland, near Inverness Campus, will be able to accommodate 200 inmates - more than the 100 prisoners HMP Inverness was designed for.

Following delays, the new prison is expected to be finished this year.

SPS said careful thought had been given to the prison's design - and its colour scheme.

"The new HMP Highland will allow us to better serve local communities, meet the needs of people in our care, and support our staff," said an SPS spokesperson.

"The design of the building has been carefully considered, with colours chosen to compliment the local landscape and create a more welcoming environment for visitors."

The spokesperson added: "With capacity for 200 people, it is almost twice as big as HMP Inverness, which it replaces.

"This means that more individuals in custody from the Highlands will be able to stay close to home, supporting those relationships with family and friends, which is so important to rehabilitation and reducing the risk of reoffending."

There are some mixed views on how HMP Highland looks.

Dr Yvonne Jewkes, a prison design expert and writer, suggested it has been purposefully designed to look like any other civic building.

"To my mind it resembles a university building," she said.

But she added: "The outward appearance of a prison matters little to prisoners because they will not see it.

"When they arrive in prison escort vehicles, they will be taken straight through to an inner part of the prison and may not even glimpse the fancy exterior."

She noted that the accommodation blocks were of a very traditional design - three spurs of three storeys each with small windows.

Dr Jewkes said the more important point was the effort to reduce the obvious signs of it being a prison.

"It is community facing and it does not have the stigmatising features of a 'typical' jail," she said.

University of Birmingham's Prof Dominique Moran, who researches the experience of prisoners and prison staff, said it was important to consider the external appearance of a prison to those who see it on a daily basis.

She said these included local residents, employees arriving for shifts and friends and families visiting prisoners.

"For each of these groups, what it looks like matters," said Prof Moran.

"We know that visits are critically important both for incarcerated people, for their families, and for good outcomes after release from prison.

"We also know that prisons can be very intimidating places to visit, especially for children.

"There are advantages, therefore, in a prison not necessarily looking the way we might 'expect' it to, especially if that means that it looks and feels approachable."

Isabelle MacKenzie, a Scottish Conservative councillor for Inverness Millburn, the Highland Council ward the new prison sits in, questioned the "dressing up" of the site.

"I understand the intention behind using colours inspired by the Highland landscape, particularly the use of grey tones to reflect granite and reduce the visual impact of what is a significant development," she said.

"However, when you look at the finished exterior, the brighter vertical panels feel far more stylised than natural.

"Rather than helping the building blend into its surroundings, they arguably make it stand out more, which sits at odds with the stated aim of landscape camouflage."

MacKenzie added: "Creating a less intimidating environment for visiting families is important, but that must be balanced with authenticity to the Highland landscape, fiscal responsibility, and a design that genuinely integrates with its surroundings rather than drawing further attention to it."