Dan Gunn - Prisoner, Prison, Power, Politics - Thursday 25 October 2018 18.00

Dan Gunn - Prisoner, Prison, Power, Politics  - Thursday 25 October 2018 18.00
President, John Kilby welcomed guest speaker Dan Gunn to last Thursday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Bridge of Allan and Dunblane.
Dan Gunn is a former prison governor having spent 38 years in the Scottish Prison Service. He has been governor of 5 prisons including the smallest, the then Barlinnie Special Unit, back in mid 1970s, and Edinburgh, the second biggest.
Since retiring in 2014 as acting Director of Prisons, Dan has become involved in many community justice voluntary charities and other groups and committees.
introduced his talk by stating it was his intention to be provocative – along with religion and politics in particular, prison and associated issues are one of the subjects on which most people tend to have strong opinions.
Our interest in offenders and offending, however, tends to focus on the circumstances up to the point they are imprisoned – particularly on the length of sentence imposed. Do we care what happens afterwards?
Dan posed a series of questions:
Why do we keep locking offenders up when the size of the prison population keeps increasing? 
What are the reasons for imprisonment?
He suggested a number of reasons but asked whether they worked - punishment; as a deterrent; to rehabilitate; to remove (temporarily) from a particular lifestyle and to provide respite.
What kind of prison?
Dan reflected on changes to the prison establishment from the era when prisons had limited facilities. Changes made after 2002 prompted a major rebuilding programme where now some 80% of prisoners are held in ‘modern’ prisons with much better facilities. Did this have an overall benefit or did it simply improve the comfort of those in prison? A new prison costs in the order of £100 million to construct.
Who should be sent to prison?
Can prison change behaviour?
Power – where does it lie?
Politics – what influence does politics have on prisons?
Finally, Dan noted that some 5% of the overall prison population was female, however there were a lot of hidden costs around the imprisonment of female offenders, particularly the effect on families.
Following this very thought provoking talk, Dan fielded many questions from the floor and was thanked on behalf of the Club by Billy Phillips.