Review To Call For Fewer Inmates

Fewer criminals in Scotland should be locked up in prisons, the long-awaited independent review of penal policy is expected to recommend.

The Scottish Prison Commission is delivering its wide-ranging review, including sentencing policy and alternatives to jail terms.

However its chair, Henry McLeish, said protecting the public from serious offenders was still the main priority. Scotland currently has a record number of offenders behind bars.

Mr McLeish, a former Labour first minister of Scotland, told BBC Scotland at the weekend that locking up fewer offenders could emerge from the report as a “principle” – but added that keeping the public safe was an over-arching priority.

‘Cut reoffending’

He said: “We’ve also found that in our prisons there’s a large number of prisoners in various categories, for example remand prisoners.

“They could possibly, some of them, be elsewhere.”

Pointing out that nearly two-thirds of prisoners reoffend within two years of being released, he added: “We’ve got to cut reoffending and this is not happening at the present time.”

The Scottish Government, which set up the commission, has embarked on a drive to encourage more community sentences to aid rehabilitation, while also announcing improvements to the prison estate.

These include a new “super-jail” in the north east to replace the ageing Victorian prisons in Aberdeen and Peterhead.