His Majesty's Young Offenders Institution Polmont is the largest of its kind in Scotland. HMP Polmont first opened as a Borstal in 1911 in the buildings of the former Blairlodge Academy. The Academy had been forced to close in 1908 due to financial difficulties and subsequent outbreak of an infectious disease, and the Prison Commissioners bought the site in 1911. It is designed to hold up to 760 inmates between the ages of 16 and 21, although there have been several reports and complaints about the literal figures. Reports of living conditions have also been criticised, including an alleged lack of food for inmates and the practice of

slopping out Slopping out is the manual emptying of human waste when prison cells are unlocked in the morning. Inmates without a flush toilet in the cell have to use other means (formerly a chamber pot, then a bucket, now often a chemical toilet) while locked ...

. Notable inmates include Luke Mitchell, and Chris Cunningham, star of BBC Scotland's

The Scheme ''The Scheme'' is a BBC Scotland BAFTA-award-winning documentary series which follows the lives of six families in the Onthank and Knockinlaw housing schemes in Kilmarnock. The series has been the subject of some media criticism, with the ser ...

. More recently, the prison is home to child killer and child rapist Aaron Campbell.

References

External links

HM Prison Polmont
on the Scottish Prison Service website Young Offender Institutions in Scotland Buildings and structures in Falkirk 1911 establishments in Scotland Government agencies established in 1911 {{Scotland-struct-stub