Scores of violent offenders freed in overcrowding crisis
The Scottish Prison Service say overcrowding is having "an increasingly destabilising effect" on the system and that more must be done across the justice system to combat the problem.
Its warning comes as it released detailed data on the nature of the prisoners who were freed under the Scottish Government's early release measures in February and March this year.
The figures revealed that almost half of the total 312 prisoners freed under the scheme a total of 152 were serving sentences after being convicted of non-sexual violent crimes.
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The second most common offence committed by those released was 'crimes against society', which includes drug-related crimes. A total of 69 prisoners who had been convicted of this category of crime were released, making up 22% of the total released.
The data also showed that 83 prisoners were released into the Glasgow area with 65 freed from the city's HMP Barlinnie, while 49 offenders were freed from Polmont and 37 from Low Moss.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman told The Herald that the figures were released in the interests of transparency but warned of significant and continuing pressures on prisons from overcrowding.
'Working with the Scottish Government, and our partners, we released people through these tranches in a way which prioritised the safety and wellbeing of those in our care, victims, and the communities we serve," he said.
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'We have been open and transparent throughout, publishing the number of individuals released at each stage, and this publication continues that approach.
'While these releases have provided some respite, our staff continue to manage an extremely high and complex population, with eight prisons now at red risk status, and the number of people in custody set to rise even further."
He added: 'This has an increasingly destabilising effect on our establishments, with staff unable to do the critical work of building relationships and supporting rehabilitation, and prisoners frustrated by the impact on their daily lives and the opportunities available to them.
'We need to see a reduction in our population, so we fully support people in our care, reduce their risk of reoffending, and help build the safer communities we all want to see.'
Kate Wallace, Chief Executive of Victim Support Scotland, acknowledged that work had been done to attempt to reduce prison populations, but that the number of prisoners remained "basically unchanged" from this time last year.
"There has been no tangible change for victims of crime. Only 2% of victims were notified of the prisoner in their case's release last year through the Victim Notification Scheme, and the most recent figures for this year are equally low," she said.
"The recent Scottish Crime and Justice Survey for 2023/24 shows decreasing confidence in the criminal justice system - this has been a repeated trend for the last five years. Measures like these early release schemes contribute to this erosion of trust.
"Just last week, changes were also made to Home Detention Curfew legislation - prisoners serving less than four years are now eligible for HDC after serving 15% of their sentence instead of 25%, meaning they will spend less time in prison and longer in the community.
"This is concerning, especially given the current lack of capacity for prisoner rehabilitation, as highlighted by the Scottish Prison Service."
She added: "While we're pleased that action is finally being taken to improve the Victim Notification Scheme, this lags behind the pace of changes to prisoner release.
"Our concern as ever is the safety and wellbeing of people impacted by crime - if victims aren't informed, they can't plan for their safety and even risk meeting perpetrators unexpectantly in their community.
"We fear further Emergency Early Release programmes alongside Prisoner Early Release and revised Home Detention Curfew regulations, begging the question of any meaningful prison sentence or rehabilitation for offenders."
The revelations come weeks after The Herald published a major week long series on overcrowding in Scotland's prisons.
Our work was prompted by the emergency early release of hundreds of short term prisoners (those serving up to four years) last summer and by the legislation last autumn changing the automatic release point from 50% to 40% of their sentence which led to the 312 prisoners being freed in February and March.
Some short term prisoners were barred from these scheme including those convicted of domestic violence or sexual offences. The measures were brought in following warnings about overcrowding by governors and inspectors.
However, speaking to The Herald in April, the Prison Governors Association for Scotland chair Natalie Beal warned the early release scheme for short term prisoners would not be sufficient to tackle overcrowding and prisons were at risk of being 'clogged up' by long-term prisoners.
She urged ministers to return to a scheme scrapped almost a decade ago by Alex Salmond's SNP government which had allowed all long-term prisoners to be released two thirds through their sentence (meaning they served at least one third of their sentence in the community.)
But this was changed by the Prisoners (Control of Release) (Scotland) Act 2015, brought in by the then justice secretary Michael Matheson meaning long term prisoners were released six months before the end of their sentence on non-parole licence.
Before the change to the law a long-term prisoner could apply for parole half way through his or her sentence. If the prisoner was not successful, he or she would be released two thirds through the sentence on non parole licence (meaning the prisoner could be recalled if licence conditions were breached).
However since 2016, while a long term prisoner can still apply for parole half way through his or her sentence, if unsuccessful he or she cannot be released two thirds through the sentence and must wait six months before the sentence ends to be released on licence.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: 'As is known the prison population has become more complex and risen significantly recently. We are taking a range of actions to manage the prison population including through increased investment in the Scottish Prison Service resource budget by 10% to £481.5 million in 2025/26.
"In addition we changed the point of release for most short-term prisoners – those serving sentences of less than four years - from 50% to 40%. Most of those released were serving sentences of less than two years, therefore, their release was less than three months ahead of their original date. The Scottish Government considers that this is a proportionate change which is bringing about a sustained reduction in the prison population and relieving some of the acute pressure on the prison estate.'
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