Slopping out: Difference between revisions

'''Slopping out''' is the emptying of [[bucket]]s of [[human waste]] when the [[prison cell|cell]]s are unlocked in [[prison]]s in the morning. Inmates without a [[toilet]] in the cell have to use a bucket or [[chamber pot]] while locked in during the night. The reason that some cells do not have toilets is that they date from the [[Victorian era]] and were therefore never originally designed to have toilets. As a result, there is no space in which to put a toilet, together with the expense and difficulty of installing the necessary plumbing.▼

Slopping out was allegedly abolished in [[England and Wales]] by 1996, although some sources maintain that Prisons Inspector Nick Hardwick has stated that it still persists in some places such as Gloucester gaol.<ref name="Private Eye">{{cite news | title = Very sloppy | newspaper = Private Eye No. 1280 | date = 21 January 2011 | page = 31}}</ref> It was scheduled to be abolished in Scotland by 1999.<ref name="times">{{cite web | title = A daily ritual for one fifth of Scots inmates | author = Shirley English | url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article844836.ece | publisher = ''[[The Times]]'' | date = 27 April 2004 | accessdate = 2008-04-03 | location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Inmates lose 'slopping out' claim | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3527632.stm | publisher = [[BBC News Online]] | date = 12 August 2004 | accessdate = 2010-07-06}}</ref> Due to budget restraints the abolition was delayed, and by 2004 prisoners in five of Scotland's sixteen prisons still had to slop out.<ref name="times"/> Slopping out ended in [[Polmont (HM Prison)|HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont]] in 2007, leaving [[HMP Peterhead|HM Prison Peterhead]] as the last prison where prisoners do not have access to proper sanitation, as 300 prisoners use [[chemical toilet]]s due to the difficulty of installing modern plumbing in the prison's granite structure.<ref>{{cite web | title = Slopping out payments to be made | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/5349130.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 15 September 2006 | accessdate = 2008-04-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Slopping out cash that was diverted away from prisons | author = Lucy Adams | url = http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/focus/display.var.1784377.0.0.php | publisher = ''[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]'' | date = 25 October 2007 | accessdate = 2008-04-03}}</ref>▼

Slopping out is still in practice in prisons in the [[Republic of Ireland]].<ref>[[The Times]] article on [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2208241.ece Inspector of Irish Prisons]</ref> However speaking at the launch of the Irish Human Rights Commission's Annual Report for 2009, the Green Junior Minister for Integration Mary White said it was time to move on from the Victorian practice. Slopping out is due to be eradicated in Dublin's [[Mountjoy_Prison|Mountjoy prison]] for the first time in its 150 year history by the end of the year. <ref>{{cite web | title = Burglary rates down 10% in Dublin, Shatter tells Oireachtas Committee | author = Conor Lally | url = http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/burglary-rates-down-10-in-dublin-shatter-tells-oireachtas-committee-1.1435116 | publisher = ''[[The Irish Times]]'' | date = 19 June 2013 | accessdate = 2013-06-19}}</ref>▼