Scotland’s Choice Report of The Scottish Prisons Commission

Scotland faces an important choice with regard to how it uses imprisonment. Its rapidly growing and overcrowded prisons are making it more difficult to secure public safety and respond effectively to serious crime. Imprisonment can have harmful consequences for prisoners and the communities to which they return. The Scottish Prisons Commission was convened to take stock of the problems and develop solutions. The principles guiding its efforts were: punishment must be visible, swift and fair; communities should be at the heart of penal reform and action; prison populations must be controlled to achieve Scotland’s wider strategic objectives; Scotland can be an international model. The Commission’s view was that gaining control over prison numbers is the necessary first step to limit its damaging effects and to focus efforts on more effective punishments.