Barlinnie – prison and rehabilitation

Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow, described by one inmate as “Glasgow’s Guantanamo Bay”, which over the decades housed violent criminals is to close. Opened initially in July 1882 it has a starkly descriptive chart with a tough, unyielding stellium in Taurus with Saturn in Taurus conjunct Neptune on one side and Algol, Chiron, Pluto and South Node on the other all square Venus in Leo.

  What transformed Barlinnie’s reputation was an experimental Special Unit with an art therapist introduced in 1973 to house intractable prisoners whom a harsh and often brutal prison system could not handle. Prisoners were offered freedom within the unit and access to creative hobbies. Jimmy Boyle incarcerated for murder with a violent past became the unit’s success story writing the best-seller A Sense of Freedom and becoming an acclaimed sculptor.

  Born 9 May 1944 3.35pm Lennoxtown, Scotland, he was brought up by a single mother after his father a well-known robber and local criminal died young. He joined a local gang when barely into his teens and graduated from shoplifting to stealing safes, doing time in young offenders’ institutes when caught. By 20, he was a feared enforcer for moneylenders. He was eventually convicted of murder, having stood trial on two previous occasions for other murders and not being convicted.

 His early years in prison saw him lashing out at prison staff and being beaten up in return, resorting to ‘dirty protests’ covering himself in faeces in order to protect himself and spending years in solitary confinement.

 The Special Unit transformed him from an irredeemable street thug and an ‘animalised’ prisoner to a well-read, articulate and talented artist and writer.   A film version of his book A Sense of Freedom was released to critical acclaim and nominated for a BAFTA. After his release he set up a project offering art therapy workshops to recovering drug addicts and ex-convicts, which became a  resource for HIV and Aids suffers.

  He has a far-travelled, knowledgeable 9^th house Taurus Sun in a confident square to Jupiter in Leo. An unconventional and uncompromising Uranus sits on his midheaven trine Neptune and sextile Puto North Node in Leo – giving him leadership abilities, a talent for influencing society and a tendency to be controlling. Saturn in his 10^th gives him organizing abilities.

 When he was first convicted for murder in 1967 tr Uranus Pluto were moving through his 1^st house which would fuel his drive to tilt against the system and refuse to cooperate.

  When he was transferred into the Barlinnie Special Unit in 1973 tr Pluto was trine his Uranus and Midheaven, which is often a pivotal moment of deep insight and transformation; with a jolting tr Uranus square his Mars.

 At that point the Barlinnie chart was 90 years on from its opening so the Solar Arc Pluto  was exactly square its natal position and conjunct the Venus highlighting the creative project.

  Sadly the unit was not well-disciplined with press reports of alcohol and drug-fuelled parties and it eventually closed in 1994. But whatever its failings 36 of Scotland’s most violent and difficult offenders were there in its 21 years of operation. Of those, only four reoffended. One inmate took his own life and one other suffered a prescription drug overdose. No staff were ever harmed during the unit’s lifespan.