2,500 Freed Early From Overcrowded Prisons

Nearly 2,500 offenders convicted of drug-dealing, assault, housebreaking and other crimes have been released early from Scotland’s prisons under a controversial policy to tackle overcrowding.

Some 2,485 inmates have been allowed home with an electronic tagging order since the controversial home detention curfew (HDC) scheme was introduced in July last year.

Only a handful have committed further crimes during the curfew period, but the number of criminals who are sent back to jail for breaking the terms of their order is increasing, The Scotsman has learned.

Some 516 prisoners have been returned to jail for leaving their homes during the curfew, attempting to break the tag or other so-called “technical” breaches – a 21 per cent rate.

That compares with a breach rate of 19 per cent in the first year of the scheme.

Under the practice of automatic early release, all short-term prisoners must be freed halfway through their sentences regardless of their behaviour or potential risk.

Prisoners regarded as “low risk” can, on top of that, spend up to the last 135 days of their sentence at home if selected for an HDC order. That means offenders can spend as little as a quarter of their sentence behind bars.

The original stated objective of HDCs was to “bridge the gap” between prison and the wider community, making it easier for offenders to reintegrate into society and reduce the country’s high reoffending rate.

But ministers have repeatedly spoken of the policy’s importance as a means of easing overcrowding in the country’s jails, with the prison population hitting a record high of 7,500 this summer.

However, with as many as two-thirds of prisoners reconvicted within two years of their release, and fears that the number of people in jail could hit 12,000 by 2030, critics question whether HDCs are having any real positive effect.

Bill Aitken, the Conservative justice spokesman, said the home curfews only deepened the public’s mistrust of the system of early release, which allows criminals jailed for four years or less to be released half way through their sentence. He said: “This policy is simply not working. The fact is those sentenced to a period of imprisonment should serve that sentence. That is what the public expects.”

He said prison was no longer stopping offenders committing more crime. “The deterrent effect of prison is now so diluted that criminals regard jail with total equanimity,” he said.

“If the Scottish Government and civil servants state that there is a problem with prison capacity, the answer is quite simple: we need a new prison in Central Scotland.”

Pauline McNeill, Labour’s justice spokeswoman, said the policy should be reviewed if breach rates became “unacceptably high”. She went on: “The most important thing is that [prisoners] are swiftly returned to jail if they break their order.”

The only category of criminals specifically excluded from being considered for HDCs are registered sex offenders.

That means prisoners who are convicted of serious assault, housebreaking, drug-dealing and serious traffic offences, such as serial drink-drivers, can all be considered for HDCs.

The Scottish Government has set up a commission to review prison policy, headed by the former Labour first minister Henry McLeish, but ministers have made it clear that the HDC scheme is not up for discussion and is “here to stay”.

Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, said home detention curfews were an “important tool for the Scottish Prison Service at a time when they are managing very real ongoing pressures on our prison population”.

He went on: “No system will be perfect. Some have breached the curfews, though further offences have been rare.

“The vast majority of offenders have not. On balance, I believe the system is making a positive contribution.”

• OVERCROWDING in Scotland’s prisons has caused major concern in recent years.

In March, a report warned that Scotland has “some of the most overcrowded prisons in Europe”.

A Scottish Consortium on Crime study found that the rate of imprisonment grew from 122 per 100,000 people to 141 per 100,000 over the past five years.

The prison population has increased from a daily average of 5,883 in 2000-1 to 6,857 in 2005-6, hitting a record high of 7,500 this summer.

But early release schemes to help tackle overcrowding have proved controversial, with many of those freed going on to commit further crimes.