£24k paid to prisoners kept inside too long

PRISON chiefs have paid out thousands of pounds in ‘ridiculous’ compensation to criminals they failed to release on time.

Despite problems with overcrowding and the £34,000 annual cost of locking up a prisoner, 41 people were kept in jail too long over the past five years.

Details of how long they overstayed were not revealed, but the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) gave out more than £24,000 of taxpayers’ cash in compensation.

The number of payouts doubled between 2013 and last year, when half the payments were made, according to figures released after a Freedom of Information request.

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘While this is not an enormous amount of money, it is ridiculous that due to administrative errors, prisoners are being housed beyond their release date and then compensated for that.’

In 2013 the SPS paid 11 criminals a total of £4,710. Between April and December last year, £12,172 was paid to 11 people.

Glasgow’s Barlinnie jail paid out the most over the five years – £10,082.

The SPS said: ‘Every year approximately 30,000 warrants are processed and 10,000 convicted prisoners are released from custody. While we are never complacent, the statistics show these errors represent a very small proportion. All errors are reviewed internally.’