We were supportive of the announcement that, following the lead of other countries such as Ireland, Iran, Argentina and Italy, the Scottish Government was actively exploring measures for the executive release of some prisoners and the expansion of Home Detention Curfew (HDC). We were also pleased to hear that solutions to maintaining family contact, such as restricted dial mobile phones and video-conferencing facilities would be put in place in the coming days.

If self-isolation is difficult within a prison, social-distancing is almost impossible. Widespread doubling-up, and sometimes, tripling-up of cells means that those with COVID-19 are already likely to have passed it on to their cellmates. With reports of inevitably rising tensions across the prison estate, there are extreme risks to the health and safety of prisoners and staff within every establishment.

The right to healthcare is a human right which remains in the face of a pandemic. If we do not decrease the prison population now, we are also putting the health of the general public at risk: prisoners may take up a disproportionately high number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, which would otherwise be available to the general public. Prison health is public health, and the best way to keep everyone safe is to carefully, but quickly, release some prisoners who are low risk and have somewhere to live.

This is not an easy process to implement, but the decision to do so, needs to be taken now.