Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - 
by MICHAEL HOWIE, The Scotsman
MORE than 100 suicides have occurred in Scottish prisons in the last ten years, new figures show.
In an answer to a parliamentary question by SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson, Tony Cameron, the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), revealed that 153 suicides have occurred since 1992/93 and 115 since 1996/97.
Scotland's dedicated women's prison, Cornton Vale, was hit by a spate of suicides in the late 1990s, when such incidents hit a peak of 17 per year.
Eleven women killed themselves between 1997 and 2002.
Since then, initiatives have been introduced, such as allowing children to stay with their mothers in jail and the creation of a sensory room, which has successfully reduced the suicide rate. But the suicide rate across Scotland's prisons has stubbornly remained at around ten-a-year, prompting calls to improve the way prisons deal with the most vulnerable inmates.
Mr Stevenson, the SNP's deputy justice spokesman, said: "I'm pleased to see continuing success in overcoming the previous history of suicides at Cornton Vale, but obviously in the rest of the prison service there's scope for further improvement.
"I hope the prison service looks at the measures that have been taken in the women's section and take those into the men's," Mr Stevenson added.
A spokesman for the SPS said: "One suicide is one too many and we take extensive measures to reduce the risk.
"We have a policy in place called Act to Care and we always carry out risk assessments on prisoners when they come into prison."
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=958492006
Last updated: 01-Jul-06 01:08 BST
