Meeting of the Parliament 26 February 2026 [Draft]
The debate has reinforced something that many of us already knew: substance misuse in prison is not incidental; it is endemic and, as Elena Whitham highlighted, it reflects deeper failures long before someone reaches the prison gate. We have heard about the treatment gap—hundreds enter custody with alcohol dependence each year, yet only a fraction receive specialist support. We have heard about substitution with synthetic drugs. We have heard about the spike in deaths after release. Behind every statistic is a person—often someone who has experienced trauma, violence, poverty or being in care. Too many are criminalised for behaviours that are rooted in unmet need.
The committee report sets out clear and practical recommendations: validated assessment tools, scaling up specialist services, strengthening pre-release planning, improving continuity of care and expanding treatment conditions in community disposals. Those must be implemented in full and without delay. However, we should not mistake implementation for completion. If prisons remain overcrowded, remand continues to be overused and short sentences persist for low-level offending, we will continue to recycle people through systems that exacerbate instability, harm and ill health. As Elena Whitham said, such punishment cannot support recovery.
The Scottish Greens believe that we must reduce the prison population as a matter of urgency—not recklessly, but responsibly and in a way that is evidence led. We must stop locking up people—especially women, as Rona Mackay highlighted—who do not pose a risk to others. Instead, we must invest in community justice, housing first, and mental health and addiction services that people can access without entering the justice system at all.
Those who are incarcerated need the staff who support them to have the support, training and equipment that they need. As Pauline McNeill and others have recognised, staff should not have their own health and safety compromised as a consequence of incidents involving substance misuse.
We should also be bold on harm reduction through universal access to medication-assisted treatment; consideration of supervised consumption models in custodial settings; naloxone provision that is opt-out rather than opt-in; and peer-led recovery communities that are embedded in every establishment. Incarceration should not be a barrier to healthcare, whether that is medical or psychological support that is needed and then provided.
Above all, we must guarantee that liberation from prison does not mean abandonment by the state. No one should leave custody to homelessness. No one should leave without healthcare continuity. As Mark Griffin and others have highlighted, no one should leave without a plan. Justice that ends at the prison gate is not justice—it is abdication.
I place on record my thanks for the work of the Prison Officers Association on this important issue and for its briefing for the debate. I am grateful, too, for the information that Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems provided.
The committee’s report shines a light on a crisis that has been hidden for too long. The real test now is political will. Will we treat substance use as the health issue that it is? Will we invest upstream rather than paying downstream? Will we choose restoration over retribution? The Scottish Greens will continue to push for a justice system that is rooted in compassion, accountability and care—one that understands that healing communities requires healing people—because, if we want safer communities, we must build healthier and more equal ones.