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What’s the most common question Barlinnie prison dentist Kieran Fallon gets asked by his patients? “Is it going to be sore?” Adam Campbell speaks with him about his work
OT in his wildest dreams did Kieran Fallon imagine, while studying dentistry at Glasgow University, that he would end up
spending more than 20 years in jail. Admittedly, unlike most people associated with Barlinnie prison, he does get to come and go as he pleases – but since 1990, Kieran has, on four mornings a week, presented his security pass to staff at Scotland’s biggest lock-up and gone to work on the oral health of the inmates. Kieran is one of a handful of dentists in Scotland employed by
the Scottish Prison Service and as such has a unique perspective of life on the inside. “Not for a minute did I imagine I would end up working there. As with most people, you don’t ever expect to go to a prison, particularly Barlinnie in Glasgow, which has got a bit of a name – or at least you hope you won’t,” he says with a laugh. But since first crossing the threshold of a prison that has housed
the likes of gangster-turned-sculptor Jimmy Boyle and Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi – as well as former MSP Tommy Sheridan, who is currently serving three years there for perjury – Kieran, now 56, has never looked back and plans, he says, “to be there a few years yet, until I finally retire”.
Essential dental care only When he started his part-time role at Barlinnie, Kieran had already been running a practice in a fairly deprived part of Glasgow for eight years, so the needs of the prisoner-patient were not entirely new to him. The concentration of problems, however, was of a different order and the priorities, too, were different, as they still are. “We provide essential dental care to an NHS standard, but we don’t do fancy cosmetics – tooth whitenings, that sort of thing. They have the same rights as people outside but that has to be tempered in some way.” One reason for this is the heavy workload – Barlinnie houses
over 1,500 prisoners, with dental cover on five mornings a week. Another lies in the fact that Barlinnie is a “local prison”. As such, the vast majority of the inmates either are on remand, awaiting trial, or are on shorter prison sentences, around three years or less, and the care is targeted accordingly.
PHOTOGRAPH: PA
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