The co-leader of the Scottish Greens Ross Greer says non-violent criminals should not be sent to prison and should instead be given community sentences.
Speaking on Scotland Tonight: Meet the Leaders, Greer said he believes the current prison system doesn’t work and community sentences would reduce reoffending.
He said: “There’s a small number of people, violent individuals, who sadly need to be kept away from the rest of society for everyone else’s safety.
“But we also in Scotland put huge numbers of non-violent offenders into prison, and they come back out and are more likely to reoffend.
“They should be getting community sentences instead. That saves the public a fortune.
“We’re then not paying for them to be in a prison system that doesn’t work.”
When asked if that included people who had committed crimes such as burglary, fraud and illegal drug dealing, he said: “If you rob somebody’s house, you should absolutely be found guilty in a court.
“You should still get sentenced, but it’s hefty community sentences.”
Policies
Greer said his party’s priorities at the upcoming election were free bus travel for all, more affordable childcare and climate action.
He also pointed towards policies that the Greens led on while in a power sharing government with the SNP in the last parliament.
He said: “The Greens delivered free bus travel for young people, we scrapped peak rail fares.
“Both of those saved people a fortune and they helped us tackle the climate emergency.
“Now we want to go further, universal free bus travel. Countries like Malta and Luxembourg already have this. We want to deliver it here in Scotland as well.
“And we want to fix our totally broken childcare system. It’s unaffordable, it’s not flexible enough for families. It’s just not working and our whole economy loses out as a result.”
How would it be funded?
The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies said the Scottish Greens manifesto was “unlikely to raise enough revenue to fund all the additional spending” their plans would require.
In response, Greer said: “We’re very fortunate that Scotland is a very wealthy country, but it’s really unequally held.
“The top 2% of households have more wealth than half the population combined. That’s before you get to corporate wealth.”
He added: “We’re the only party that’s put forward that range of tax proposals to raise additional revenue.
“The biggest variable though is how much money the UK Government allows the Scottish Government to have each year.
“That’s the challenge with trying to do fully costed manifestos for a devolved election.
“But we’re being honest. Super rich need to pay more”
The Scottish Greens have also pledged to scrap the council tax.
Greer said: “The single most important one is scrapping and replacing the council tax.
“I’m 31. The council tax hasn’t been in date in my lifetime and it’s the poorest paying more than they should, the richest paying less and our services losing out.”
Will the Scottish Greens enter government again?
The Scottish Greens served in government in the last parliament with a power sharing agreement between them and the SNP, before Humza Yousaf ended it in 2024 when he became First Minister.
Greer said he is open to working with the SNP again.
Greer said: “Our job is to deliver green policies like free bus travel, like fixing the childcare system.
“Clearly you can deliver more of your policies from government than from opposition, but we wouldn’t go into government to help another party just deliver their manifesto.
“We would have to be able to deliver what we believe.”
He also ruled out working with any other party including Labour.
Electoral prediction
At the 2021 election, the Scottish Greens won eight MSPs and are hoping to build on that success.
When asked for a prediction, Greer said he was hoping to win 15 seats.
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