The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Concerns over rise in curfew breaches
The number of home detention curfew breaches is rising, according to new figures.
Around one in five (18%) offenders on the curfews, which allow prisoners to serve part of their sentence on licence in the community while wearing an electronic tag, are recalled behind bars.
In 2017-18, for the 1,434 prisoners released under the system, there were 300 curfew breaches. This is up from 241 breaches out of 1,381 people the previous year and 222 breaches from 1,449 people in 2015/16.
Recalls to custody have also risen over the three years, from 184 in 2015-16, to 190 the following year and 261 in 2017-18.
The Scottish Conservatives obtained the figures from the Scottish Prison Service under Freedom of Information and the party’s justice spokesman Liam Kerr said they show a “softtouch” justice system.
The figures follow reports that 15 offenders recalled after breaching their curfews have been on the run for five years or more and of these, one has been missing for a decade.
Law killer Robbie McIntosh was days into his monitored release when he tried to repeat the killing of a dog walker in Dundee’s Templeton Woods 16 years on from the original crime. Systems for monitoring offenders have been under increased scrutiny after a man was given a life sentence last month after stabbing a father-ofthree to death following a breach of his home curfew. James Wright was “unlawfully at large” when he killed Craig McClelland, of Paisley, in July last year.
Mr Kerr said: “If sentences were of sufficient length, and the rehabilitation infrastructure vastly improved, the integration of these individuals would be far more successful.
“But what we see now is a softtouch approach from the SNP government which is spreading across the justice system.”