Meeting of the Parliament 18 September 2019
First of all, whatever I said then in The Herald would have been about abolishing automatic early release for long-term prisoners, which the Parliament chose to do in 2015—although I remember that, interestingly, the Conservatives abstained on that very vote. However, if it were to be applied to short-term prisoners that policy would add approximately 3,500 to our prison population, leading to a total of 11,500 prisoners. To cope with the resulting demand, we would have to build three more Barlinnies. That is not the type of Scotland that I want to see; I want us to focus on rehabilitation and alternatives to custody that help to rehabilitate offenders so that we have fewer victims of crime.
I realise that I am running out of time, but I think it important that I read the quote from Lady Dorrian that I mentioned. She said:
“Without sufficient knowledge and understanding, public debate and discussion around sentencing is at risk of becoming a simplistic and uninformed argument between prison and ‘soft touch’ justice, between being tough on crime and letting offenders walk free.”
I will end on that very point. However, I do have more to say on it, so I will focus on it in my closing remarks.
Liam Kerr is not an uninformed or simple individual; he understands such matters and is intelligent. However, I say to him that suggesting such extraordinarily populist policies that are rooted in sound bites will not do the justice system any favours at all—for victims, let alone offenders.