HM Prison Greenock

HMP Greenock serves designated courts in western Scotland by holding male prisoners (both adult and under 21s) on remand, and short-term convicted prisoners. It provides a national facility for selected prisoners serving 12 years or over, affording them the opportunity for progression towards release. It also accommodates a small number of prisoners for a range of management and operational reasons. Although officially labelled as HMP Greenock it continues to be known by its original name Gateside Prison.

Senior Management

HMP Greenock's Governor is Mr Martin MacDonald (Acting Governor whilst waiting the arrival of a new Governor). Mr MacDonald is the current Deputy Governor.

Residential areas

HMP Greenock is divided into three separate residential areas, known as halls.

Ailsa Hall

Ailsa Hall is the Prison's largest hall with a design capacity of 131, although this is usually exceeded.[1] It holds all of Greenock's remand prisoners, short term prisoners (STPs) and a small selection of long term prisoners (LTPs). This hall consists of mainly shared accommodation with electric power in cells and integral sanitation facilities.

Darroch Hall

Darroch Hall holds selected life sentence LTPs from mainstream establishments pending progression to national top-end facilities at Chrisswell House in HMP Greenock or Pentland Hall in HMP Edinburgh and a selection of other LTPs. This hall consists of mainly single accommodation with electric power in cells and integral sanitation facilities. Darroch Hall is designed to accommodate 57 prisoners.

Chrisswell House

The role of Chrisswell House is to prepare LTPs for progression to open conditions at HMP Castle Huntly and HMP Noranside. The most recent of builds on the site, it has electric power in cells with shared sanitation facilities. Chrisswell House is designed to hold 60 prisoners.

Visits

Visits are run 7 days a week, with four sessions run Monday - Friday and three sessions at the weekend. The times below apply to both remand and convicted prisoners.

Ailsa Hall prisoners may receive visitors on any day of the week.

Darroch Hall prisoners may receive visitors every day of the week, except on a Friday and a Saturday.

Chrisswell House prisoners may receive visitors generally on any day of the week.

Further details of local rules may be obtained at HMP Greenock visiting page or by telephoning the vestibule officer on 01475 88 33 00.

Monday to Friday

Sessions last a maximum of 50 minutes during the week, but can be cut to 30 minutes should any operational need arise, for example, an incident occurring between sessions.

Session 1: 14:00 - 14:50
Session 2: 15:10 - 16:00
Session 3: 18:50 - 19:40
Session 4: 20:00 - 20:50