This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/7481992.stm

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Review to call for fewer inmates Prison numbers 'must be tackled'
(about 11 hours later)
Fewer criminals in Scotland should be locked up in prisons, the long-awaited independent review of penal policy is expected to recommend. Scotland must tackle its record high prison population through alternatives to jail, an independent review of criminal justice policy has said.
The Scottish Prison Commission is delivering its wide-ranging review, including sentencing policy and alternatives to jail terms. The Scottish Prison Commission warned inmate numbers, already at about 8,000, would reach 8,700 by 2016, and said this must be cut to 5,000.
However its chair, Henry McLeish, said protecting the public from serious offenders was still the main priority. The body said ministers should bring in a single community sentence, with a wide range of options.
Scotland currently has a record number of offenders behind bars. These should be used to cut short-term prison sentences.
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. The long-awaited report from the commission, headed by former Labour first minister Henry McLeish, said Scotland locked up more people than many other European countries, and that prisons were increasingly used for those who were "troubled and troubling rather than dangerous".
'Cut reoffending' The report, which made 23 recommendations, concluded: "High prison populations do not reduce crime. They are more likely to create pressures that drive reoffending than to reduce it."
He said: "We've also found that in our prisons there's a large number of prisoners in various categories, for example remand prisoners. Public safety
"They could possibly, some of them, be elsewhere." The commission said gaining control over prison numbers had to be the first step, but added that new laws should be brought forward to force judges to impose a new community supervision sentence instead of a six-month jail term.
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." Mr McLeish said the public still had to be kept safe from the most dangerous offenders by locking them up, but warned that Scotland's criminal justice policy had reached a crossroads.
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. He said: "Scotland has one possible future where its prisons hold only serious offenders, prison staff regularly and expertly deliver programmes that can affect change and there is a widely used and respected system of community-based sentences.
These include a new "super-jail" in the north east to replace the ageing Victorian prisons in Aberdeen and Peterhead. "There is another possible future, one in which there are many more prisons, as overcrowded as those today. Dedicated and skilled 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.
"We have to make a choice between these two futures."
The commission recommended the setting up of a national sentencing council and community justice council to reform policy.