During his 34 year service Ed initially served as a Prison Officer for ten years and then as a Governor. He served in 11 prisons and worked also on two occasions at the Scottish Prison Service Headquarters.
He started in HMP Barlinnie and then after four years was transferred to Craiginches prison in Aberdeen before being promoted to the Governor grade. He continued to be transferred around Scotland serving in Polmont Borstal, Peterhead Prison, Cornton Vale, Perth and the Barlinnie Special Unit. In 1985 after the American intervention, he was seconded to the Government of Grenada as Prison Adviser. He was Governor of HMP Shotts the maximum security prison for Scotland when he retired in 1994.
Since retirement he has been involved as a lecturer in Security Management, and was employed as Senior Security Adviser at Scottish Water for five years before being recruited by an American Private Prison Company as an UK prison consultant.
He is a graduate of the Open University gaining a BA Hons. Degree (Social Sciences). In 2006 he enrolled for a full time degree course in History at Stirling University at the age of 69 years and graduated in 2010 with Honours.
The objective of the presentation and discussion is to:
- Examine the development of the use of prisons as a method of dealing with offenders
- Define the objectives of imprisonment
- Discuss the effectiveness of the Prison Service within the criminal Justice System
- Establish if the Prison Service is “Value for Money” and “Fit for Purpose”
- Attempt to define what can we realistically expect of the Prison Service