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Easing pressure on prisons
09/03/2008
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has urged the Scottish Parliament to put political differences to one side to give Scotland's prisons some much-needed breathing space.
On Wednesday MSPs will debate the Scottish Government's proposals for an extension of the Home Detention Curfew scheme - proposals which were stymied by a slim majority of the Justice Committee last week.
Ahead of the debate, Mr MacAskill said:
"This coming Wednesday the members of the Scottish Parliament face a stark choice - to back our hard-pressed prison service and its highly-professional staff or to turn their backs on them. If Parliament fails to back this first measure to support our prisons in this its toughest test, then our prison service will have to face the consequences of that inaction.
"This weekend I want every member to think carefully about the reality of the situation we face. Last month, prison population records were broken 25 times. The Governor of Barlinnie is clear that within months he will simply be unable to take any further prisoners. SPS have said we are potentially one troubled football match away from meltdown.
"These pressures are real - and they should be front and centre in the mind of everyone that claims to have public safety at the top of their priorities. You cannot talk the talk on public safety without being prepared to walk the walk on tackling prison pressures.
"We have set out a clear long-term vision for a more coherent penal policy - and we are investing £120m a year in prison building. Three new prisons will rise. But the trends we are dealing with are inherited - and we can't build our way out of the problem.
"That's why I am appalled by the politicking around the immediate measures now on the table. To build consensus we have brought forward a proposal to extend a measure that was introduced by the previous administration - and which was supported by this Government when in Opposition. A principle that was designed by the previous administration to include the legal flexibility to extend home detention criteria. The very flexibility that we are now seeking to commence.
"Extending HDC in this way is not an answer to the rising tide of prison numbers, it's simply the beginning of the answer. This not is a short-term blip which will vanish when the new prison at Addiewell opens. Anyone harbouring that view needs to spend more time with a prison officer as the Bar L sees sunrise and less time inventing eleventh hour ruses about 'sunset clauses'.
"The question I pose this weekend to those set on wrecking the proposal is this - 'if not HDC, what other viable alternatives would you support?'
"In an ideal world do I want to be bringing in these extra measures? No. I too, for example, would like to be in the position of driving through reform of community punishments further and faster than I am currently able to. But we are not in an ideal world. Do I have to bring in these extra measures? Yes.
"In 2008 and on prison pressures, we need to put pragmatism over politics."