A fitting punishment

Sir, – At questions to the First Minister last week, Ruth Davidson went on prisons and prisoner release on home visits.

The Conservatives are still fixated with this Victorian idea that prison should be about hard labour, so hard that no one in their right mind having served their sentence would ever commit another crime ever again, for the consequences of doing so would be so dire.

Sorry Ruth, but people are sent to prison as punishment – not to be punished.

There is no easy answer to prison reform, and unfortunately, in Scotland, it is embroiled in politics.

I suspect many in society don’t give much thought to the justice system, prison sentencing and less to prison reform unless, of course, it comes knocking on their door.

Too many people today are in prison simply because judges have no other option.

Our prisons are full of people that simply should not be there in the first place.

If someone steals to feed an addiction, for instance, then clearly the problem is his/her addiction – not the crime of stealing.

Prisons are not equipped to treat people with complex problems such as addiction and/or mental illness, and if you are not going to end up with prisons simply being warehouses with a revolving door, then you have to treat the symptoms to get the desired cure.

The Scottish Government has thankfully learned that lesson.

The government has closed down its large woman’s prison in favour of small units for women prisoners situated across the country, so women with complicated backgrounds – possibly having been in an abusive partnership, with drug or alcohol addiction, mental illness or with a record of re-offending – can now get help turning their lives around.

Being sent to an area close to their family is an essential part of the rehabilitation programme.

It allows them to stay in touch with immediate family.

All who have been through such programmes have said it is no cop-out.

Here they will have to take on the responsibility for their own lives. Walter Hamilton. Flat 3 City Park, City Road. St Andrews.

There is no easy answer to prison reform, and unfortunately, in Scotland, it is embroiled in politics. I suspect many in society don’t give much thought to the justice system, prison sentencing and less to prison reform unless of course, it comes knocking on their door.