THE number of prisoners in Edinburgh's Saughton jail is continuing to rise, new figures showed today.
Official statistics put the average daily population at Saughton in 2007-08 at 796, compared with the previous year's figure of 782 and the prison's capacity of 771.
The maximum number of prisoners being held at Saughton at any one time was 849 la
st year, compared with 829 the previous year. Across Scotland, the average daily prison population was 7376, an increase of three per cent over the previous year, and an increase of 22 per cent over the past ten years.
The figures continue the upward trend observed since the early 1990s, in contrast to the previous two decades when the average daily prison population fluctuated around the 5000 mark. Earlier this week, the Scottish Prison Service confirmed the country's prison population had topped 8000 for the first time. Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "While crime has fallen in Scotland we continue to lock up more offenders than ever before. This is the absurd situation we inherited. We need to punish offenders but also tackle the underlying causes of crime."
He said the report from the independent Prisons Commission urging that jail sentences be reserved for the most serious and dangerous offenders pointed the way ahead.
The full article contains 221 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
