Question reference: S6W-14260
- Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 24 January 2023
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Current status: Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that more than half of inmates released early during the COVID-19 pandemic have gone on to reoffend.
Answer
The early prisoner release power within the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act was used once, in May 2020. This power was used to protect the security and good order of prisons and the health, safety and welfare of prisoners and prison staff alike. Such measures were taken across the world, including elsewhere in the UK.
Steps were taken to manage the risks around those being released early to as low a level as realistically possible. That included statutory exclusions and a governor veto where there was a known risk to a specific individual. Furthermore, the scheme applied only to those sentenced to eighteen months or less, with 90 days or less left to serve in custody, at the time of the power being used.
A proportion of those prisoners were returned to custody for a number of reasons including, in some cases, due to reoffending.
No level of reoffending is acceptable. That is why this Government is focused on driving a greater shift away from short-term prison sentences, which those released under this power were serving, towards community-based interventions which we know are more effective at reducing reoffending.