Charlene Sweeney

Scotland must choose between sending fewer criminals to jail or being blighted by a cycle of reoffending because prison staff cannot provide effective rehabilitation amid record levels of overcrowding.

That was the stark warning contained in a report published yesterday by the independent Scottish Prisons Commission led by Henry McLeish, the former Labour First Minister.

The report said that soaring prisoner numbers were making it more difficult to secure public safety. There are at present more than 8,000 prisoners, including several hundred on home detention curfew, but the report said that the number of inmates could rise to 8,700 by 2016.

To prevent further overcrowding, the report called for an overhaul of the Scottish criminal justice system, including introducing more community penalties and virtually banning judges from imposing custodial sentences of six months or less.

It also suggested that ministers pursue a target of reducing the number of prisoners to an average daily population of 5,000.

Mr McLeish said: “Scotland has one possible future where its prisons hold only serious offenders, prison staff regularly deliver programmes that can effect change and there is a widely used and respected system of community-based sentences.

“There is another possible future, one in which there are many more prisons, as overcrowded as those today. Professionals lack support and suffer from low morale, the public's distrust of the criminal justice system reaches record levels and fragile communities are ignored.”

Yesterday's report made a total of 23 recommendations, all aimed at driving down the prison population. It advised that a single community supervision sentence should be introduced, with a wide range of options through which offenders can undertake unpaid work.The change, it said, should be made by two new bodies - a National Community Justice Council, and a National Sentencing Council.

It also urged the Scottish government to pass new laws that would force judges to issue community sentences instead of custodial sentences.

Among other reforms it suggested were drug-free wings in prisons, better care for young offenders on release, the eventual termination of the home detention curfew scheme, and legislation to stop early release for prisoners through the Custodial Sentencing and Weapons (Scotland) Act.

The report recommended the establishment of drug-free wings to protect inmates who are clean from those pushing illegal drugs in jails.

The report emphasised that the open prison system must not be used to ease overcrowding, after the case of Robert Foye, who raped a teenager after absconding from Castle Huntly open prison near Dundee last August.

The commission visited the Republic of Ireland, Finland and New York to examine how other countries deal with offenders. They also observed community justice schemes in Glasgow, Falkirk and Liverpool.

In the Irish Republic, which has a comparable population with that of Scotland, the imprisonment rate is almost half, at 72 inmates per 100,000 people. Among the key differences found there was a law against imprisoning under-18s; support for and use of alternatives to imprisonment; and enhanced probation, which reduces the likelihood of breaches.

The commission also travelled to Finland, which moved from having one of the highest imprisonment rates in Europe in the 1970s, to one of the lowest. The team found that this was achieved through a combination of factors, including legislative change, judicial co-ordination and co-operation in issuing fewer custodial sentences, and political support.

To teach offenders about a life without crime, Finnish prisons correspond as far as possible to normal society, with inmates taking paid jobs. Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, said that the government would respond to the report with detailed proposals after the summer.

But Clive Fairweather, the former chief inspector of prisons, said he feared that little would change without a significant shift in public opinion. “The public is stuck in a punitive mood and until that changes the sheriffs will act accordingly.”

COUNTING THE COST

£32,358

cost of a year in jail

18,200

number of custodial sentences issued last year

62%

number of prisoners who

reoffend within two years

65%

of inmates have the numeracy skills of an 11-year-old

Source: Scottish Prisons Commission and Scottish government

Times Recommends

• Games industry sets its lawyers on downloaders
• Great Britain's golden summer is no fluke
• Scientists grow blood in lab