Prison reform

Speech delivered on Thu 21st Feb 2008

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): Prison reform is an important and emotive issue and I welcome today's debate. Like other members, I welcome the minister's statement with regard to children.

As members including the minister and Robert Brown have said, proportionally Scotland has one of the largest prison populations in the world. Despite that, reoffending rates continue to rise. As it stands, the system is ineffectual and expensive and there are widespread problems with drugs and overcrowding. Sixty per cent of those who enter prison reoffend within two years. Her

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Majesty's chief inspector of prisons, Dr McLellan, has consistently warned that overcrowding is making it impossible for those who work in prisons to contribute as well as they might to the reduction of reoffending.

We are long since past the stage when it could be said that the people of Scotland are best served by the current system. If we are to move forward, as the Scottish Liberal Democrats have always maintained, the culture of our prison system must change to incorporate further community sentencing for minor offences and thus cut reoffending. The statistics speak for themselves: more then 20 per cent fewer criminals who are given community sentences reoffend.

As Margaret Smith said, we must ensure that such disposals are well resourced and immediate. Willie Coffey referred to the problem of women with families doing community service. I suggest that that shows that more resources are needed.

Obviously, such a change will not happen overnight, and more research is required in some areas. Among the possibilities that must be explored further is the notion of weekend prisons, where people are deprived of their leisure time to complete useful work projects in the community. The scheme could be used for the offenders to whom Cathie Craigie referred. As Nigel Don said, those offenders are not a threat to society, so why are they in prison? They should not be there. A pilot scheme in England and Wales met with some success but struggled to be cost effective. That barrier must be overcome if the idea is to be developed further.

There are numerous examples of effective systems from abroad. Indeed, in this month's Holyrood magazine, Keith Simpson, the head of restorative justice at Sacro, pointed to Finland as a valuable example of a country where community sentences, backed up by strong deferred prison terms, have proved effective.

As I would expect, the Conservative motion, without saying so explicitly, implicitly presupposes the maintenance of the current prevalence of custodial sentences. The Conservatives have talked a lot about early release-a policy that the previous Conservative Government at Westminster introduced-as well as the shortage of prison places with respect to current demand. I am concerned that such an approach offers no answers to the problems that are inherent in Scotland's prison system. Rather than being an attempt to examine the viable options, it represents simply a failed status quo. However, I agree with Bill Aitken that we must tackle the problem of drugs entering prisons.

The core of the problem is self-evident. As my colleague Margaret Smith said, Edward Garnier,

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the Conservative shadow minister for home affairs at Westminster, concedes that imprisoning criminals

"is hugely expensive and not working."

I began by welcoming a debate on prison reform and will close by saying that it is reform that is required, not the maintenance of the failing status quo. Our reactive and overly custodial-based sentencing system is what has got us here. What is required is a proactive system that concentrates on cutting reoffending. The cabinet secretary used the word "compassion" several times; perhaps we all need to show a bit more of that. I support the Executive's amendment and our amendment to it.