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Criminal Justice Committee 11 March 2026 [Draft]

11 Mar 2026 · S6 · Criminal Justice Committee

Item of business

Criminal Justice System (Challenges for Session 7)

Sara Snell Watch on SPTV

I almost want to frame the question differently and link it to what we said earlier about who should be in prison. Prisons are doing an extraordinary amount to understand the changing nature of the people they are looking after. There is a whole flat at HMP Glenochil for elderly and infirm prisoners, with 24-hour social care. Should it be the prisons, with support from social care and healthcare teams, that are adapting to meet those needs or are there alternatives for elderly, infirm prisoners who are suffering with dementia?One of the recommendations in the sentencing and penal policy commission’s report highlighted the age of 60, but people often talk about 50 as the age at which people in prison—as opposed to people in the general community—begin to suffer the infirmities of older age. The commission’s report said that we need to look at those needs and decide whether prison is the most appropriate place to manage that risk. The health teams are constantly having to readjust their skill mixes because of the nature of the needs of people who are coming into prison. Stephen Sandham will be able to say more about that. The level of understanding of neurodiversity, how it affects criminal behaviour and how it brings people into the carceral net is improving all the time. We are trying to keep abreast of that and understand the implications.The hard work that is done in putting resources into ensuring that people are safe, that they have three meals a day and that they have access to their basic entitlement can distract from the task of preparing people for release. This is more of a personal observation than something that you will find in our reports, but the work that is done to prepare prisoners for release—this is the case with short-term prisoners in particular—tends to begin towards the end of their time in prison. The Parole Board for Scotland would say that it would like long-termers to think about how to prepare for parole right from the outset. Currently, the system is not set up in such a way as to allow that to be possible, but if we had the capacity to change things, we would want to engage in preparing people for release right from the outset.Things such as the acquisition of life skills are available to prisoners only in the last few weeks before their release, because such provision is a precious commodity and a level of prioritisation is needed. The acquisition of such skills might be valuable for remand prisoners and people who might end up going out on short-term release. However, if that short-term release comes sooner than anticipated, they will not have that opportunity.I mentioned Upside, which is a very positive service that has become available this year. We do not yet have evidence on Upside’s work—a report will be produced on that—but it was envisaged that the service would support people who were leaving custody after short-term sentences. Upside’s ability to do that has been somewhat affected by the need to be there for those who are released under the short-term release process. As a result, there has been much more of a hiatus in the development of the service than I think was intended.

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Criminal Justice Committee 11 March 2026 [Draft]

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