Findlay ‘cannot believe how little outrage there is’ over prison situation

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay has said he “cannot believe” how little outrage there is over the situation in Scotland’s prisons.

The Scottish Prison Service announced last month the prison population had hit an all-time high, with 8,430 people in custody and the Government planning a third early release initiative.

MSPs are yet to vote to back the legislation that would create the early release scheme, but the first two-day window for release is due to open next Sunday.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, the Scottish Tory leader said Justice Secretary Angela Constance has “essentially ripped up” the sentences given to prisoners who are to be released early.

“Frankly, I cannot believe how little outrage there is over the situation we are now in,” he said.

“The SNP Scottish Government have been wholly in charge of Scotland’s justice system for almost two decades.

“They’ve failed to build the prison capacity the country needs.”

Asked specifically about the early release scheme, Mr Findlay added: “The SNP Government has released the best part of 1,000 prisoners early.

“In each of these cases, the sentence was decided by an independent member of the judiciary – and Angela Constance, who can’t even be bothered to be here today, has essentially ripped up each of those sentences.”

Previous schemes have seen a number of those released go on to commit other crimes, which Mr Findlay said would be “inevitable” in the case of the most recent efforts to reduce the prison population.

Appearing on the same show, His Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) Sara Snell said wider action would need to be taken to bring down populations in the long term.

“There either needs to be a decision to make more prison places and give up on that choice to keep the prison population low and accept that sentencing practice is going to rise,” she said.

“Or, look at the underlying causes of why these issues are not resulting in lower prison populations and look at wide-ranging sentence policy, improving access to community sentences, improving diversion from custody and making sure that people who’s offences were around mental ill health, substance misuse, have the support that they need, which is not available to them in prisons.”