and housing Barlinnie was designed by Major General
Thomas Bernard Collinson, architect and engineer to the Scottish Prison Department, and it was built in the then rural area of
Riddrie adjacent to the
Monkland Canal (now the route of the
M8 motorway), first opening with the commissioning of A hall in July 1882. Barlinnie prison's five accommodation halls: A, B, C, D and E, were built in stages between 1882 and 1897, with each holding approximately 69 inmates. There was a major extension to the perimeter in 1967 to create an industrial compound. From 1973 till 1994, the world-famous "Special Unit" placed emphasis on
rehabilitation, the best known success story being that of reformed Glasgow gangster
Jimmy Boyle. Cultural output associated with the Special Unit included Boyle's
autobiography,
A Sense of Freedom (1977);
The Hardman (1977), the play Boyle wrote with
Tom McGrath; a body of sculpture; and
The Silent Scream (1979), a book of prose and poems by Larry Winters, who committed
suicide in 1977.
Capital punishment A total of 10
judicial executions by
hanging took place at HMP Barlinnie between 1946 and 1960, replacing the gallows at
Duke Street Prison before the final abolition of
capital punishment in the United Kingdom for
murder in 1969: Each of the condemned men had been convicted of murder. All the executions took place at 8.00 am. As was the custom, the remains of all executed prisoners were the property of the state, and were therefore buried in
unmarked graves within the walls of the prison. During the D hall renovations of 1997, the prison
gallows cell (built into D-hall) was finally demolished and the remains of all the executed prisoners were
exhumed for reburial elsewhere.
Escapes The first man to escape from Barlinnie was John Dobbie, three days after being sentenced to 15 years for a violent robbery in 1985. Dobbie escaped inside a laundry van; he was captured by armed police five days later and was sentenced to a further five years. ==Current use==