Hansard

This SSI makes a small but far-reaching change to the home detention curfew regime, in which, subject to licence conditions, eligible prisoners are released from custody into the community.

At the moment, a prisoner can get HDC once they have served a quarter of their sentence. The SSI reduces that to a mere 15 per cent. A prisoner who is sentenced to two years in prison would therefore now be eligible for HDC after just three and a half months.

We all know that, due to a lack of any overarching strategy and an inability to build capacity, our prisons are running way over capacity. However, absent any such strategy, the Scottish National Party knee-jerks its response: last summer, and again earlier this year, the SNP opened the gates and let hundreds of prisoners out early. Despite that, by February 2025, prison numbers exceeded the pre-summer-release figure by almost 100, not least because more than one in 10 of the original cohort was back behind bars within weeks.

The SNP tried putting more people on community service, yet almost 30,000 such orders have been breached in the past decade or so. Roughly 8,000 of those involved got the jail for their breach, thus adding to the numbers.

Then the SNP changed the law such that short-term prisoners would automatically be released after serving just 40 per cent of their sentence, despite evidence showing that too little time in prison can prejudice proper rehabilitation—yet the prison population remains stubbornly high.

Clearly, this SSI is just the latest knee-jerk attempt to reduce the prison population. As was the case with the other measures, we have been given no evidence that it will either aid rehabilitation or, ultimately, reduce the prison population. Crucially, there is no consideration of the victims of crime. Indeed, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs told the Criminal Justice Committee that no specific research has been undertaken on the impact that the SSI might have on victims.

Last month, I raised the case of violent thug Andrew Brown, who, just one year into a four-year sentence for repeatedly subjecting Demi Hannaway to appalling mental and physical abuse, even when she was pregnant, will get home leave. That is under the current rules. If colleagues vote to approve the SSI today, they are voting to allow criminals such as Brown to be eligible for HDC after seven months. The mere thought disgusts me, and any other MSP who feels the same must vote against the SSI tonight.