Hundreds of Scottish prisoners to be released early in next six weeks to reduce overcrowding

Hundreds of short-term prisoners will be released early from their sentence over the next six weeks following legislation passed by the Scottish Government to tackle overcrowding.

The Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act, which was passed by Holyrood in November and came into effect last week, changes the release point for those serving prison sentences of less than four years from 50% of their sentence to 40%.

It means an estimated 260-390 short-term prisoners who have served 40% of their sentence will be released by the Scottish Prison Service in three tranches.

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Hundreds of short-term prisoners will be released early from their sentence over the next six weeks following legislation passed by the Scottish Government to tackle overcrowding. stvnews scotland scottishgovernment
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The first tranche will be released from Tuesday to Thursday, the second from March 4-6 and the third from March 18-20.

Those convicted of domestic abuse or sexual offences will not be released early under the changes.

The Scottish Government said it expects the change to bring about a 5% reduction in the sentenced prison population.

Michael Stoney, the governor of HMP Barlinnie, told STV News: “It will have an immediate impact and hopefully give us a lot of breathing space to allow us to do more of the things we can do well.

Governor of HMP Barlinnie Michael Stoney. STV News

“Hopefully, we can start to maintain some levelling off of the population because the less we have in prison here, in terms of working towards our design capacity, the better we can impact on people’s lives, the more work we can do with individuals, the more we can build resource in them, the more we can challenge their behaviour, and a better chance of reducing reoffending.”

Some 477 convicts were freed during an early release programme last summer in a bid to ease overcrowding, with 61 of them later returned to custody.

“It helped for that period because we were reaching a crucial peak point and Barlinnie in particular feels the acute point of that,” said Mr Stoney.

“We accommodate more than anyone else and we’re overcrowded more than anyone else so it really helps this prison albeit it was for a short time; it got us through a period.”

Mr Stoney believes the new legislation that has just come into effect will hopefully represent a new normal for the Scottish prison system.

Victims who have signed up to the Victims Notification Scheme (VNS) will be told automatically if there is a change to a prisoner’s release date in their case.

Victims who are not signed up to the VNS can also contact the Scottish Prison Service directly to receive information.

Victims will also be able to nominate Victim Support Scotland, Rape Crisis Scotland, ASSIST or Children First to receive information about prisoner release on their behalf.

Justice secretary Angela Constance: “There’s no single bullet to reducing our very high prison population.

“There are a number of legislative measures that we have taken – some of which have been through necessity to release some short-term offenders earlier, but we also have bigger reforms in legislation around things like the bail and release act, the children in care and custody act, we no longer send under-18s to prison.

“If a deprivation of liberty is required they will have to go to secure accommodation. We continue to invest in community justice, so there are a range of actions that we have to continue with to reduce our prison population.”

But Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr criticised the move to release prisoners from their sentences early.

He said: “The release of more dangerous criminals today poses an immediate threat to public safety.

“The overcrowding in Scotland’s prisons is a crisis entirely of the SNP’s own making, with their catastrophic failure to build new prisons on time and on budget.

“With the costs for a replacement Barlinnie set to hit an outrageous billion pounds, it sums up how detached SNP politicians are from the real world.

“Victims will be betrayed once again with the release of hundreds of prisoners in the coming weeks, and we know many previously released went onto rapidly re-offend.

“It is just common sense that prisoners should serve their sentences in full. However, under the soft-touch SNP, criminals are shamefully getting a free pass yet again.”