Stop sniping and help solve prison crisis, says MacAskill

JUSTICE Secretary Kenny MacAskill today told critics of his prison strategy to stop "carping" from the sidelines and help turn the tide of record prisoner numbers.

He said prison was failing both as a deterrent and as rehabilitation.

And he backed the principles behind the independent Scottish Prisons Commission report earlier this year, which recommended jail sentences should be reserved only for the most serious and dangerous offenders, with others facing tough community sentences.

Speaking at a conference at Edinburgh's Dynamic Earth, Mr MacAskill said: "We lock up more prisoners than almost anywhere else in western Europe.

"Reoffending rates show that prison is having little or no deterrent or rehabilitative effect.

"There is something truly perverse about the fact that crime is falling yet we are locking up more people."

He said the SNP government had inherited a prison estate which was not fit for the 21st century and it was committed to building three new prisons to tackle that.

Last month, Scotland's prison population topped 8000 for the first time.

He added: "It's easy to carp from the sidelines but this Scottish Government is not afraid to take on the challenges outlined by the commission."