NOW CRIME DOES SPRAY IN PRISON..

Leading graffiti artist Elph is to share his skills at Polmont Young Offenders Institution, near Falkirk.

The project is part of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) Inspiring Change scheme to take music, drama and visual arts into prisons.

But yesterday critics questioned using taxpayers’ money to train inmates in a criminal act that blights many Scots communities.

Labour’s Duncan McNeil, whose Greenock constituency has suffered from spray-painted vandalism, said: “Graffiti is no small matter when it is being carried out on your property or in your neighbourhood and people will be astounded that this is being taught in our prisons.

“If the SNP Government believes state-sponsored vandalism will get young offenders back on track, the writing is on the wall for them.”

Elph is a well-known figure on the street art scene with a project at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

He said: “It is this idea of portraiture, and in some ways to get the guys to look, to try and create a self-portrait or something based loosely on their experiences. There’s a lot worse things you can learn in prison than doing graffiti.”