A crime reduction charity in Scotland has called for a greater focus on community sentences and bail supervision to reduce offending after the prison population reached record levels. The comments from Sacro follow remarks made by the Scottish Prison Service’s chief executive Mike Ewart. He said prisons were in a state of emergency because of overcrowding. The prison population has reached 8,137, although the capacity is only 6,625. Mr Ewart called for a cap on the number of those being incarcerated. Sacro said short custodial sentences were ‘next to useless’, arguing there was a wealth of evidence to support this view. In 2005/06, sentences of six months or less accounted for 83% of prison terms handed down, while the average time served was 24 days. ‘This is not long enough to help prisoners address their offending behaviour but it is long enough for them to break ties with their families and communities and build new, less positive ties within prison,’ Sacro said.

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24 September 2008
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