£3M HARD CELL

Crime bosses blow record amounts to kill and maim rivals in Scotland's jails | Attacks soar as number of hoods in clink up by fifth in last year

- MARK McGIVERN

THE gangland spend on contract beatings, slashings and murder bids in overcrowded jails has rocketed to more than £3million.

A recent flood of major gangsters into prisons is putting more strain on the system, in which the number of bloody attacks is already off the scale.

The Record can reveal that:

● Gangland contract violence now tops a record £3million.

● The number of crime gang members inside has soared by 21 per cent in a year with 653 now adding to mayhem on a daily basis.

● Violent incidents each month exploded from 95 in 2022 to 163 this year-up 72 per cent in two years.

● The number of drones known to have carried deadly drug and weapon cargoes to jails has rocketed from seven in 2022 to 67 this year so far - up tenfold.

● Eight per cent of the entire prison population is an identified organised crime group member.

Tony Martin, the Scottish Prison Service's's Divisional head of operational delivery, told the Record prison overcrowding is contributing to the risk levels.

And the recent torrent of gangland convictions sparked by the cracking of the international Encrochat encrypted phone system is set to make things even worse.

Martin said: "There's certainly been a lot of high-profile cases recently where individuals identified with organised groups have received very long sentences.

"Police Scotland are convicting people and a lot of dangerous individuals are being taken out of communities, which is a success story.

"However, that success hugely adds to the complexity of managing these individuals on a daily basis, because a lot of these guys don't stop their criminality when they come into prison.