The Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2011

Closed visiting facilities

78.—(1) The Governor may, for any reason specified in paragraph (2), order that any visits which a prisoner receives from a member of the chaplaincy team or for the purpose of rules 63 to 76 must be held in closed visiting facilities.

(2) The Governor may make an order under paragraph (1) for any of the following reasons—

(a) there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the prisoner has previously obtained or is likely in the future to attempt to obtain, from any visitor, any prohibited article or any unauthorised property;

(b) the prisoner’s behaviour makes it necessary for the purposes of security and control for any visit to be received in closed visiting facilities;

(c) any previous visit to the prisoner has been terminated in terms of rule 77(1) due to the conduct of the visitor;

(d) the visitor has previously been refused access to the prison; or

(e) the Governor is of the opinion that it is necessary to ensure, in relation to a visit for the purposes of rule 70, that the visit is required for any purpose specified in rule 70(2).

(3) The Governor may make an order under paragraph (1) in relation to any particular visit received in terms of any rule mentioned in paragraph (1) or in relation to every visit received in terms of any of those rules, but any order made in relation to every such visit must be reviewed by the Governor not less than once in every 3 months and may be revoked by the Governor at any time.

(4) No order under paragraph (1) may be made as a punishment in respect of a breach of discipline within the meaning of Part 11.

(5) For the purposes of this rule, “closed visiting facilities” means visiting facilities with special security features including physical barriers between prisoner and visitor.