First Minister Alex Salmond faced a Labour attack over the escape of a prisoner once dubbed "the most dangerous man in Britain".
Iain Gray, Scottish Labour leader for Holyrood, said the escape of Brian "Hawk" Martin from an open prison was the latest sign that Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill was "just not up to the job".
Mr Gray launched the attack at First Minister's Questions where Mr Salmond defended his Justice Secretary and insisted the number of absconders from open jails was lower than under the previous Labour government.
The Holyrood exchanges followed the escape of Martin, 51, from Castle Huntly open prison near Dundee on Monday. Martin, who had been transferred to Castle Huntly from Shotts Prison in April, was sentenced three years ago to ten years for firearms offences.
Mr Gray opened his attack by asking: "Why was a man with a long record of violence and fleeing justice being held in an open prison in the first place?"
Mr Salmond said open prisons were intended for long-term prisoners approaching the end of their sentence.
"Any absconding from an open prison is to be deeply regretted", said Mr Salmond, who told MSPs there had been three this year, two of whom had been apprehended.
Mr Gray told MSPs: "When he walked out of the open prison on Monday, Brian Martin was just three years into a ten-year sentence for firing a gun during a fight in a house in Fife.
"His previous offences included a string of armed robberies and threatening police with a sawn-off shotgun.
"This is a man once dubbed the most dangerous man in Britain.
"Will the First Minister agree that Brian Martin should not have been in an open prison in the first place?"
Mr Salmond told MSPs: "Neither Iain Gray nor I are in a position to rule on the criteria for open prisons.
"But what we can say is to look at figures for open prisons and abscondings over the last generation."
Regulations were tightened by the Justice Secretary after the case of Robert Foye, jailed last year for raping a schoolgirl while on the run from Castle Huntly, he told MSPs.
"In the last year of Labour control there were 339 prisoners in the open estate," said Mr Salmond. "There were 79 abscondees - an abscond rate percentage of daily population of 23%."
In the last year, after the changes, there were 342 prisoners in open jails, of whom just 16 absconded.
"Any escape from the open estate is greatly to be regretted," said Mr Salmond. "But I don't think Iain Gray is on firm ground complaining about abscondees when the rate under this Justice Secretary is one-fifth of what it was under the Labour Party."
Mr Gray said the reduction was welcomed but the answer "missed the point".
"This is not the first time Brian Martin has gone on the run," said the Labour leader. "He has previously had to be pursued with road blocks and sniffer dogs when he was still in an open prison.
"Isn't the truth that Mr Salmond and Mr MacAskill haven't done enough to protect the public from this kind of case since the last time this happened?"
Mr Salmond insisted the figures showed a "dramatic" fall in absconding from open prisons, and urged Labour to welcome this.
