On 21 July 2023 HMIPS published its Thematic Review of Segregation in Scottish Prisons. It was a highly critical report, highlighting a raft of concerns at an individual and systemic level, with some very troubling findings including serious prisoner mistreatment at an unnamed prison. It also covered the issue of a lack of high secure beds for women in Scotland, linking it to the Independent Forensic Mental Health Review’s strong recommendation that this be actioned within 9 months of its 2021 report. SPICe (Scottish Parliament Information Centre) also published a briefing paper on Forensic Mental Health Services in Scotland, reiterating similar points.

On 11 November 2022 HMIPS published its Annual Report 2021-2022 in which it described Scotland’s prisons during the pandemic as “places of containment, rather than          rehabilitation”, questioning the equivalence of healthcare in and outside prisons, and yet again, drawing attention to serious issues of remand; overcrowding; child imprisonment; barriers to progression; and the estate’s ageing infrastructure – going so far as to moot the possibility of some prisons being closed.