Jailbirds! New Scots prison to have 300 nesting boxes for SWIFTS

• Over-budget replacement for notorious Barlinnie will also have owl and bat boxes and fruit trees 

It’s being built on the outskirts of ­Scotland’s biggest city to house some of the country’s most hardened criminals.

But now it can be revealed the new HMP Glasgow is also set to become home to hundreds of endangered swifts – thanks to nesting boxes built into the prison walls.

The prison, which will replace the ­notorious Barlinnie jail, has already raised eyebrows after we disclosed it will also feature owl and bat boxes, fruit trees and extensive gardens for inmates.

The latest revelations, boosting its credentials as ‘Britain’s greenest nick’, follow a request from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) for 300 special bricks – with holes for the globally threatened swifts to live in – to be incorporated into the jail’s five massive halls.

The charity said the nesting bricks would be a ‘biodiversity enhancement’ at the prison which is under construction at the junction of the M8 and M80 motorways in Glasgow’s East End.

RSPB Scotland said: ‘Swifts are a quintessential sign of Scottish summertime and an intrinsic part of Glasgow. However, they have declined and are now a ‘red-listed’ species on the list of Birds of Conservation Concern.

The new HMP Glasgow will replace the ­notorious Barlinnie jail and has already raised eyebrows after it was disclosed it will also feature owl and bat boxes

The prison is also is set to become home to hundreds of endangered swifts with nesting boxes built into the prison walls.

‘Swifts are entirely reliant on buildings to nest and return faithfully to the same site each year. Loss of nest sites is a key factor in the decline of swifts.’

They recommend installation of ‘a minimum of 300 swift nest bricks for this large development’. Despite having top-notch environmental credentials, the new prison – which is already hundreds of ­millions of pounds over its initial estimated budget of £170 million – has been widely criticised.

It has been dubbed ‘HMP Soft Touch’ over its facilities and gardens – with halls rebranded as ‘houseblocks’ and inmates, including rapists and murderers, to be known as ‘residents’.

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: ‘Just weeks ago, the SNP justice secretary admitted the spiralling cost of this prison will be at least £400 million yet someone has hatched this latest bird-brained idea.

‘Scotland has suffered almost 17 years of SNP economic mismanagement and a complete disregard for taxpayers’ money.

‘The public is supposed to be paying here for a high-security prison, not a nature reserve.’

The new jail is a far cry from cramped and crumbling Barlinnie, where the practice of prisoners using buckets as toilets in their cells only ended in 2004.

HMP Glasgow will instead offer a ‘campus-like’ setting for more than 1,000 of Scotland’s worst offenders.

In addition to the wildlife-friendly elements, the jail will feature a ‘health and wellbeing garden’ for ‘residents’, providing an area for ‘reflection, prayer and meditation’.

A ‘horticulture area’ will also be created with planting beds, polytunnels and ‘trained fruit trees’.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has described the facility as having ‘more in common with a school or college than with a Victorian prison’.

An SPS spokesman said: ‘We are committed to ensuring a range of benefits from the HMP Glasgow development, including for local biodiversity.’

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