prison population

Reducing Scotland's Prison Population (Yet Again ...)

Following the launch of the consultation on proposals to change the point of release for long term prisoners on 8 July 2024, the consultation report was published on 10 October 2024. On the same day, the Cabinet Secretary made a Statement to Parliament. As she had been warned, the prison population had quickly returned to pre-emergency release levels.

A report published on 2 September 2024 on the Early Release of Prisoner and Prescribed Victim Supporters (Scotland) Regulations 2024 is available here. It showed that 477 people were released under the emergency release regulations, with Governors having vetoed 171 of those initially identified.

A further report published on 2 October 2024 showed that of the 477 released prisoners, 57 (12%) of them had been returned to prison having been accused/convicted of further offending. (This is lower than the ‘normal’ rate of reoffending over a similar time period.) The average time in the community was between 2 and 61 days, with an average time length of 22 days.

On the day of the Parliamentary Statement the population stood at 8,322, against an operating target of 8,007. The Cabinet Secretary thus advised that in November 2024 she would be introducing new proposals to move the point of automatic release for short-term prisoners from 50% to 40% in the expectation that this would immediately reduce the population by between 260 and 390 people and would continue to do so in a sustainable way. She also advised that HDC GPS technology would be introduced in January 2025 (subject to Parliamentary approval).

The Cabinet Secretary’s statement was followed by one from the Lord Advocate (Dorothy Bain KC) who advised that she would be issuing short-term guidance to sentencers making decisions regarding bail and remand. The guidance does not apply to those involved in allegations of domestic abuse or sexual violence. Much of it appeared to reflect points that we had made previously about the importance of information being made available to sentencers at the point of setting bail and discouraging automatic objections to it by the Crown. Bail reviews are to be encouraged alongside a full roll-out of the successful Summary Case Management pilot which was launched at Dundee, Hamilton and Paisley Sheriff Courts and before being extended to Glasgow and Perth.

Reducing Scotland's Prison Population (Again)

On 2 May 2024, the Public Audit Committee took evidence from Teresa Medhurst (SPS, Chief Executive) amongst others. (Their corresponding report was published on 10 June 2024.) She advised the Committee that 7 of Scotland’s prisons were on ‘high risk/red status’ and highlighted the severe pressures they were facing. A later letter from Ms Medhurst followed up some other points which the Committee had asked. The evidence reflected a letter that the Prison Governors Association had sent earlier to the Criminal Justice Committee. Shortly thereafter came a series of Parliamentary statements, legislative proposals and evidence sessions on what became the The Early Release of Prisoners and Prescribed Victim Supporters (Scotland) Regulations 2024 This legislation came into force on 13 June 2024.

On 8 July 2024 a consultation was launched on changing the point of release for long term prisoners. The proposals were later dropped with proposals to change the point of release for short-term prisoners.

Prison Population Pressures

On 18 January 2024, HMIPS wrote to Teresa Medhurst, (SPS Chief Executive), regarding human rights concerns relating to exercise provision and prisoners’ time in open air. This arose from recent inspections of HMP YOI Polmont and HMP Perth.

As a result to acknowledged overcrowding, on 22 January 2024, it was advised that short-term low supervision convicted male prisoners would start to be moved into HMP YOI Polmont. In a subsequent Public Audit Committee evidence session, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland pointed out that a 42-cell section is being used to accommodate the small number of 16 and 17 year old prisoners - currently 7, but at the time, 3 - to ensure that they are kept completely separate from all other populations i.e. there was a small amount of under-utilised space in the estate.

Soon afterwards Natalie Beal (Governor, HMP Glenochil) called for a purpose-built nursing unit to be used to hold elderly and infirm prisoners in lower security conditions, in order to ease overall prison overcrowding. This was linked to Freedom of Information figures on the extremely high social care costs being borne by SPS. (See this article.) We provided background reports to various media outlets about this which featured in press comment and also appeared on BBC Radio Scotland Drivetime to discuss it further.

A BBC Disclosure documentary, which aired in February 2024, included a quote from Ms Medhurst that nothing would be taken off the table if the prison population exceeded 8,500 and that she may have to say “enough is enough, we can’t take any more [people]”. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice also appeared, advising that “doing nothing is not an option”.

These themes could also be seen in the National Preventive Mechanism's Annual Report 2022-23 which was published in February 2024. It urged governments to heed outstanding recommendations made repeatedly by scrutiny bodies over several years. These included: overpopulation of prisons; the lack of access to meaningful, educational and rehabilitative activities in custody; severe staff shortages, including healthcare and mental health staff; a lack of record keeping, information sharing, and analysis; and a lack of timely investigation of serious incidents, including deaths in custody.

On 27 February 2024 the Cabinet Secretary announced proposals to set up a review into sentencing and penal policy in order "to ensure that the right people are there at the right time".

Scottish Prison Population Statistics 2022-23

On 5 December 2023, the Scottish Prison Population Statistics 2022-23 were published by the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician. They cover the period from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, so the headline figure of a daily prison population decrease of 1% is slightly misleading.

Prison Population Projections

On 14 November 2023, the Scottish Government published its Prison Population Projections for the six month period from October 2023 to March 2024. The projected population range is between 7,500 and 8,650. It followed receipt of a letter that the Prison Governors' Association had sent to the Scottish Parliament's Criminal Justice Committee in which its Chair, Natalie Beal, wrote: “If we continue this path, we are at best providing humane containment, albeit even this may be at a stretch, with many prisons already operating restricted regimes, resulting in the provision of little or no positive rehabilitative work”.

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