The Barlinnie Special Unit

Description

Fifty years ago, a small unit in HM Prison Barlinnie, Glasgow, became a radical experiment whose approach polarised opinion. It encouraged shared decision-making between prisoners and staff, allowed greater access to families and enabled prisoners to explore creative activities. Through the support of visiting artists, and the voices of the prisoners themselves, notably the sculptor Jimmy Boyle (author of A Sense of Freedom), its impact challenged prevailing, disciplinarian prison culture.

Arts of various kinds, plus respectful and challenging dialogue, released dormant abilities and strengths in hitherto recalcitrant, formerly violent prisoners. Always controversial, the legacy of the Barlinnie Special Unit challenges overly punitive ideas around crime to this day.

The first edited collection on the Barlinnie Special Unit’s almost 22-year history with contributions by those who were there at the time, or helped preserve its legacy. They include artist filmmaker Bill Beech, Scotland’s first art therapist Joyce Laing, leading Scottish impresario Richard Demarco, Sara Trevelyan, ex-wife of Jimmy Boyle (who also contributes), Rupert Wolfe Murray, son of Boyle’s publisher, Professor Mike Nellis of Strathclyde University, Claire Coia, a curator at Glasgow’s Open Museum, Andrew Coyle, founding Director of the International Centre for Prison Studies and journalist, and former Scottish MP Brian Wilson.

Based on first-hand accounts, the book is a definitive retrospective and the first detailed history/analysis of the unit. A supreme record of an ‘iconic’ social experiment which includes diverse and largely unpublished materials.

The book will be featured as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival programme in August 2025.

Reviews

‘The unpopular truth was that a number of violent prisoners who had themselves been subjected to violent suppression became relaxed and socialised under this unheard of regime.’– Sunday National

‘The editors here have curated a powerful, forward-looking historical appraisal of the ground-breaking Barlinnie Special Unit (BSU). They draw on multiple voices through essays, interviews and images. Their contributors include weighty academics, acclaimed artists, former prison staff up to the level of governors and, grippingly, onetime prisoners. This books stands as a testimony to what a redemptive approach to criminal justice can look like: how it came into being, the doubts and the criticisms, the challenges and achievements, the raw humanity, the political insouciance that led to its closure in 1993, and its living legacy.’– Alastair McIntosh, writer, honorary senior research fellow at Glasgow University, and the GalGael Trust.

‘Unique today in that it is the only British penal initiative from fifty years ago that anyone in Scotland (or England) cares to remember and celebrate as a neglected success, whose less obvious lessons were never properly learned.’– Bella Caledonia

‘Art therapists working in secure institutions will find this book particularly relevant. However, hopefully it will be of interest to all art therapists in its inspiring demonstration of the power of art therapy to effect change even in the most challenging circumstances.’– Marian Liebmann, Insights

‘A beacon and a challenge to all thinking people about what to do with antisocial individuals… we need books like this one – read it, heed it, and then act.’– Dr Bob Johnson, Consultant Psychiatrist (click for full review)

‘Brings to our attention how the Barlinnie Special Unit challenged many preconceptions about what prisons could and should be.’– Quakers in Criminal Justice

‘Looking again at the BSU is a reminder that we have to reform the prison system. It means treating people in a humane way, even those who have committed serious crime, and by inventing creative projects which restore a person’s self-worth as a better route to redemption than mere punishment’ — Baroness Helena Kennedy KC (from the Foreword).

As featured in the Herald, Sunday Mail, Daily Record, and Inside Time; on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland, BBC TV’s The Nine; and on the Just Humans podcast.

About the editor of The Barlinnie Special Unit

Dr Kirstin Anderson has taught for 22 years in schools, universities and prisons and led the first empirical study to look at Music Education and Music Making in Scottish prisons. She is a Lecturer in Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University.

The author of the Foreword

Baroness Helena Kennedy KC is a leading lawyer, broadcaster and former Master of Mansfield College, Oxford. Her publications include Eve Was Framed and Just Law. She is President of Justice among other high profile law reform roles.

Additional information