Meeting of the Parliament 20 February 2025
Since October 2023, I have updated Parliament on a number of occasions about the rising prison population, the challenges that that brings and what the Government is doing about it. I have been clear on the need for on-going action to continue to reduce crime and ensure that we have a sustainable prison population. It is vital that our prisons can operate safely and effectively, with public safety and the rehabilitation of prisoners at the core.
Despite recorded crime being down 39 per cent since 2006-07, the prison population has increased by 60 per cent since 1990. Between 2011-12 and 2017-18, the population reduced by 9 per cent, driven by a reduction in the number of young people sent to prison, before it rose again in 2019-20. Between March and June 2020, we saw a temporary drop as a result of the pandemic, but the prison population has continued to rise since then.
The harms caused by such a high prison population should not be underestimated. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland regularly describes the “nine evils of overcrowding”. I will not rehearse them all, but I will highlight a few. Those who work in prisons have
“less time to devote to screening prisoners for the risks of self-harm or suicide”;
resources in prison are stretched so that prisoners
“have less access to programmes, education, training, work”;
prisoners spend more time in their cells; and family contact and visits are restricted.
We all want people who leave prison to successfully reintegrate into their communities, to contribute to society and to be less likely to reoffend. The harms associated with having a high prison population reduce the impact of prison in preventing reoffending.
Let me be clear: the Scottish Government is not changing its position on the use of prisons. Prison will always be necessary for those who pose a risk of harm or threaten the delivery of justice. Our independent courts must continue to have the ability to remove an individual’s liberty when appropriate. Protecting victims and the public from harm is, as always, my absolute priority.
We need to reconsider the kind of justice system that we want to have. I have said repeatedly that there needs to be a shift in the balance from custody to justice in the community. Debate around community-based sentences is often hostile and misinformed. We need to ask ourselves difficult questions about how to further tackle public health problems that lead to higher rates of offending, such as addiction, poor mental health and poverty, with more effective community-based action. Do we truly believe, as a country, that the only solution is to build more and more prisons, with significant economic and social cost?
We need to face up to the reality of how counterproductive short prison sentences are, given their profound and negative effects.