The Scottish Government

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SCOTLAND'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE PLAN

INTRODUCTION

1. Justice is at the heart of safer, stronger communities. Our justice system underpins strong communities where the values of fairness, tolerance and respect can flourish. Effective working by the services which make up our criminal justice system supports safer communities, where ordinary law-abiding people can live their lives free from the fear of crime, and where the rights of all members of the community are respected and upheld.

2. The services which make up Scotland's criminal justice system have distinct responsibilities. There are good reasons for the constitutional independence of the courts, the discretion exercised by our prosecution service, and for the operational independence of Chief Constables. But all work together in the interests of justice, together with the other agencies that make up the system - especially our prisons, criminal justice social work, voluntary agencies and others who deal directly with offenders.

3. Our vision is for a criminal justice system where all these services work effectively and coherently together in the interests of justice to protect our citizens, safeguard their rights and help create communities which are stronger and safer. The challenge is to work together more effectively, and more coherently, securing public confidence that those who offend will be brought to justice speedily and efficiently, then sentenced and dealt with in a way that is appropriate to their crime and will reduce their reoffending in future. We can improve public safety by having a world-class criminal justice system.

4. Of course criminal justice services do not operate apart from the communities they serve, and crime is not something that they alone can deal with. Crime and disadvantage are linked. That is why the devolved Scottish government's programmes for social justice and closing the opportunity gap, for giving all children the best start in life, for supporting families and children in difficulty, and for increasing the educational attainment of Scotland's children all play their part in helping those at risk of committing crime.

5. The majority of Scotland's citizens lead law abiding lives. They have the right to do so free from fear and from the impact of the behaviour of a criminal minority. That is why we have strengthened our law enforcement agencies, and given them new powers, including powers to deal with the antisocial behaviour that blights the lives of many.

6. Since 1999, we have embarked upon the most ambitious and sustained reform of our criminal justice services in a generation, with tangible results:

• More police officers now than ever before delivering the highest ever clear up rates in 2003, i.e. from 31% to 47% in the 10 years since 1993 ¹;
• A 5% reduction in recorded crimes in 2003 to 407,000 - the lowest level in nearly a quarter of a century ²;
• The establishment of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency which, in partnership with police forces and other law enforcement agencies, is making a very significant impact on serious and organised crime including drug trafficking and the seizure of criminals' ill-gotten gains;
• Far-reaching court reform, improving the handling of serious crimes and sparing victims and witnesses unnecessary stress;
• A comprehensive programme of modernisation of our prosecution service;
• A Vulnerable Witnesses Act to provide child and vulnerable adult witnesses with extra protection and support in court;
• A huge expansion of youth justice programmes across the country to prevent and divert young people away from offending; and
• Tough new legislation to prevent and tackle antisocial behaviour.

7. But to achieve our vision we must push our reforms further and deeper.

8. We must work harder at protecting our communities and preventing and detecting crime. Our police provide an excellent service. They are using with increasing effectiveness the new powers and resources that we have provided to them. They are working with local authorities and communities to implement the new laws on antisocial behaviour. But great challenges lie ahead. Serious and organised crime can undermine communities and we need a strong intelligence led approach to successfully counter this danger. That is why we will also be working with the United Kingdom Government and the new Serious and Organised Crime Agency as part of our drive to deal with criminals who have no respect for borders.

9. We have further to go on reform of our court processes. Justice needs to be delivered speedily, effectively and efficiently if it is to have the right impact on offenders and maintain the confidence of communities. We have already legislated to improve the High Court. The agenda for reform of our summary courts set by the McInnes committee is ambitious. Having now consulted on the recommendations we must further develop proposals which will see less serious offences dealt with efficiently and effectively close to the communities which have been damaged.

10. Sentencing of offenders is rightly a matter for our judges, but our sentencing system needs to be more coherent, easier for the public to understand and above all more effective in reducing reoffending. That is why we set up the Sentencing Commission. It has already made progress in examining the best use of bail and remand and will next work on arrangements for early release and then on the issues of consistency of sentences and the use of fines.

11. These are major reforms in their own right. But there are critical issues that must be addressed if we are to make a real impact on the experience of our communities - persistent reoffending and the link between offending and drug use.

12. Reoffending cuts to the heart of our criminal justice system. Scotland suffers unacceptably high reoffending rates. In 1999, 60% of offenders released from prison were convicted of another offence within 2 years of their release. 58% of offenders on probation orders were reconvicted within the same time frame as were 42% of those who received a community service order. 1 in 2 offenders under 21 re-offend. Much reoffending is driven by addictions that fuel violence or the demand for money.

13. So long as re-conviction rates remain as high our criminal justice system is likely to remain locked into an unproductive, volume led, demand driven cycle where the inability to cut reoffending generates recurring volume that clogs up our courts. The same offenders appear time and again. This, in turn, drives up custodial sentences, particularly short-term custodial sentences - as earlier sentences are seen to have been ineffective in deterring reoffending and the repeat offender travels further into the service. This again generates demand for more prison places, and excessive churn of short term prisoners, caught in a revolving door, repeatedly entering prison for short periods. In these circumstances it is much harder for prisons to offer interventions to reduce the likelihood of further offending upon release.

14. Communities, seeing how long it can take for an offender to face justice and seeing the apparent ineffectiveness of sentences to prevent reoffending, understandably lose confidence in the service and push for even greater use of custody. We must break free from this unproductive cycle and set our service on a reformed path - a path that focuses on the integrated management of sentenced offenders, whether in prison or the community, so we reduce reoffending and help them return to a law-abiding lifestyle. To achieve this will require significant changes in both the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and local government. The SPS and local government will continue to share responsibility for the management of offenders, but within a new national framework set by Scottish Ministers, to whom the SPS as an Agency must be publicly accountable. Ministers will also set the strategic direction for offender services delivered by local authorities and will call them to account.

15. To reduce reoffending we must tackle the drug addiction that is so often associated with repeat offending. Drug addiction sits at the heart of many offenders' lives. If we are to improve public safety, our drug strategy must encompass enforcement, education and treatment and rehabilitation. If we are to reduce drug-related reoffending our criminal justice services must assess and manage the addiction problem consistently and appropriately all along the offender pathway, from arrest through sentence, to release. But they must also align with community health services so as to eliminate those service fractures between prison, community sentence and the offender's life when his sentence is over, that can disrupt treatment and increase the likelihood of reoffending. One service's repeat offender is the other's repeat patient and the community's repeat problem.

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