Meeting of the Parliament 05 November 2025
I will not vote tonight to release more than 1,000 criminals early from prison. Yes, the Scottish National Party’s failure to come up with a holistic justice strategy has led to our prisons being dangerously overcrowded, but throwing open the gates and freeing criminals early is not the solution.
During the passage of the Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025, the cabinet secretary said:
“The measures in this Bill will bring about a sustained reduction in the prison population”.
As I warned, that was nonsense then and it remains nonsense now. Indeed, Victim Support Scotland told the Criminal Justice Committee that early release is
“not effective in reducing the prison population in the medium or longer term.”
Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons has pointed out that short-term releases do not reduce the numbers over the longer term, because they do not
“address any of the root causes of the problems.”
The cabinet secretary will argue that early release provides short-term relief, but Scottish Prison Service statistics show that 11 of our 17 prisons were full mere days after the previous early release programme.
Early release only exposes the public to risk, as data shows high levels of reoffending by previous early-release prisoners. It retraumatises victims, it diminishes respect for our courts and it exposes the SNP’s failure to expedite the over-budget and delayed HMP Glasgow and HMP Highland.
Do not forget the SPS’s recent warning that a new prison the size of HMP Grampian or HMP Shotts would be needed to address the overcrowding—a new prison that the cabinet secretary refuses to even contemplate because, as she put it,
“If we build, they will come.”—[Official Report, Criminal Justice Committee, 29 October 2025; c 8.]
However, there are alternatives. The Government could heed prison inspectors and address the 27 per cent of the prison population that is on remand. It could note His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland’s comments that the long-term population is key and look at its proposed solutions. It could use existing powers to bring in alcohol and drug tags to reduce risks and reoffending, as is the case in England.
Instead, the Government presents MSPs with what was originally a knee-jerk response to a wholly predictable crisis as the sole default option, with no guarantee that it will not be extended to long-term prisoners in the future.