Stephen Stewart BBC Scotland news website

Dirty underwear joins slopping out, voting rights and overcrowding as the latest hot topic for the nation's jails service.

Scotland's prison service continues to attract criticism

A new report says Glasgow's Barlinnie inmates are up in arms after being forced to wear dirty and ill-fitting underwear.

Depending on who you ask, this is either a flagrant assault on human rights or an attempt to pamper already over-indulged criminals.

The tough prison in the city's east end is the only one in Scotland to ban inmates from wearing their own clothing.

Samantha Willis runs Project HAPPY, one of Scotland's first free support services for the children of prisoners.

Her organisation gives advice, counselling and free bus rides to families from all over Scotland who are visiting prisoners at HMP Kilmarnock and Shotts.

She said: "It is a sentence in itself for prisoners to be forcibly kept away from their loved ones.

Human rights

"Things are improving in prisons but hygiene is a basic human right. If people are treated like animals they will simply behave like such. Some basic conditions have to be upheld."

Scottish Conservative MSP Bill Aitken, while backing the notion that prisoners should not live in unhygienic conditions, said inmates were being "mollycoddled".

He said: "I definitely think inmates should not be allowed to vote. We have gone too far down the road of human rights.

"It has become ludicrous. The Scottish Executive's solution is to empty the prisons with prisoners serving less time."

In recent months, inmates have claimed their human rights were breached because they were barred from voting in May's elections.

First Minister Jack McConnell attempted to limit the damage by saying the UK Government would meet the cost if any prisoners won damages in light of a landmark Court of Session ruling.

Flood gates

Three years ago, Robert Napier was awarded �2,450 damages for having to slop out in Barlinnie jail as it breached his human rights.

This was reportedly dwarfed by the associated bills paid out by ministers, coming to �1m in legal aid and more than �500,000 in court costs.

This opened the floodgates, with 591 other Scots prisoners granted legal aid to pursue human rights cases, most in relation to slopping out.

Overcrowding remains a perennial cause for concern.

Scotland's chief inspector of prisons, Dr Andrew McLellan, has been vociferous on the issue.

Fears for the state of the nation's already packed prisons were raised further with the announcement that Low Moss prison, near Bishopbriggs, would close in May.

A new prison is to be built there but may not be available for a further two years.