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Meeting of the Parliament 02 May 2013

02 May 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Community Justice System

Pearson, Graeme Lab South Scotland Watch on SPTV

I acknowledge the speeches from all members thus far and I associate myself with many of the comments that have been made. I welcome the cabinet secretary’s indication—as I understood it—that he would welcome cross-party discussions outwith the chamber to identify an appropriate way forward. That is a productive way to look at where we are and to identify future delivery in the community justice system.

I agree with many of the comments that have been made, particularly by Labour colleagues, that we would have benefited from having sight of a report on the responses, as we might have been better placed to offer strong and, I hope, educated views about the various options that are being considered.

I hope that, in the time left to me, I can bring a slightly different view to the debate. As regards the size of the problem that we are trying to address, the prison population—in spite of annual declarations from the Government—continues to rise. In 2011-12, the daily average was 8,178. In 2012-13, that rose to 8,300, and the forecast from those who have knowledge of such matters indicates that it is feasible that 9,500 prisoners will be in our prisons in 2020-21. There is an endemic, systemic problem that needs to be addressed, not only from the point of view of the human tragedy that it reflects, but in terms of the public investment and finance that are necessary to care for offenders in our system.

As regards reconviction rates, Audit Scotland reported—I think fairly—that progress on reoffending has been fairly static. Reconviction rates were 31.8 per cent in 1997-98, and 30.1 per cent in 2009-10—a reduction of 1.7. While that is welcome, it does not reflect progress, in the wider sense of that word.

At the same time, the Scottish Prison Service, the Government and community justice authorities spent £419 million in 2010-11 dealing with people convicted in the courts, but less than a third of that—£128 million—was spent on cutting reoffending. The prison population continues to increase and the cost to wider society of reoffending is estimated by Audit Scotland at about £3 billion per year—without even considering the impact on victims and witnesses.

Audit Scotland also noted that the reconviction rates are significantly affected by changes in the criminal justice system and by how the Scottish Government chooses to classify cases. That is illustrated by the fact that the reconviction rates do not include people who have reoffended after receiving early intervention measures such as police fixed-penalty notices and the like.

It is important that we have a debate and decide the way forward. It is a pressing issue. However, of the 8,300 prisoners that I mentioned earlier, we should bear it in mind that more than 70 per cent are classified as functionally illiterate and innumerate. Unless we find a way to deliver purposeful activity—I prefer to call it “activity with purpose”, and that purpose should be to educate and provide the facilities that will give prisoners opportunities as they leave the prison environment—we will always slam into a wall of self-defeat.

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Meeting of the Parliament 02 May 2013

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