SNP SCRAP JAIL TERMS OF UNDER ONE YEAR
New ‘soft-touch’ justice fears as thugs stay out of prison
THOUSANDS of criminals will be spared jail under an extraordinary shake-up of the justice system due to be introduced within months.
In a radical policy change, the Scottish Government is set to scrap sentences of less than a year.
The move – which means offenders found guilty of violent crime, robbery, neglect, fraud and indecency may no longer be locked up – is to be introduced by the end of the summer.
Currently, 11,000 criminals a year are
sentenced to a jail term of less than 12 months.
Ministers believe short sentences do little to reduce reoffending and that jail should only be for serious criminals.
But critics say prison sentences provide a deterrent and warn that allowing so many offenders to dodge jail could increase crime.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday understands Government officials have discussed the plans with community groups and want to introduce sweeping changes to sentencing policy within months. The SNP introduced a presumption against sentences of three months or less in 2010. But sheriffs can ignore that if they feel no other sentence is appropriate.
The Government is now considering strengthening that policy, to stop sheriffs ignoring it, and also extending it. It follows a consultation in 2015 which found 84 per cent of respondents would back a presumption against jail terms of up to a year.
But victims’ groups warned ordinary Scots would be robbed of justice if forced to watch offenders walk free from courts – and that the plans risk sending out a message that the Scottish Government ‘condones’ violence.
Kevin Hogg, director of operations at the National Victims’ Association, said: ‘Even thinking about extending to a full 12 months – I’ve seen someone get a rehabilitation order in a manslaughter case – that’s not justice for the family. What the Scottish Government needs to do is take a firm stance on offenders of a violent nature. Anything to do with violence must carry a mandatory custodial sentence.
‘What the Scottish Government is going to be saying is we condone domestic violence. Yes, you can be prosecuted, but we will send you back out on the streets with a rehabilitation order. That’s no punishment.
‘How is the victim going to feel knowing the assailant is out walking the streets? They could be a victim again, it could even lead to murder.
‘Let’s put offenders behind bars and give them a year to think about what they’ve done.’
Scottish Tory justice spokesman
‘The Government needs to take a firm stance’
Douglas Ross said: ‘These reports are incredibly worrying and show that the SNP’s soft touch on justice is set to continue. Short-term sentences have an important role in deterring crime and increasing the presumption against these from three months to 12 will worry many.
‘There are a number of crimes for which short sentences are appropriate and Scots will rightly be concerned that these criminals will instead be let straight back into our communities.’
Some 11,165 criminals were sent to prison for less than a year in 2015-16, the most recent figures available, with only 2,532 jailed for longer. Dozens of attempted murderers and sex offenders, along with hundreds of robbers, fire-raisers and drug-dealers, were sentenced to less than 12 months.
The prison population is expected to rise from 8,300 in 2012-13 to 9,500 by 2020-21 – and the SNP is determined to save money by bringing it down.
Supporters of scrapping short-term sentences believe 12 months is not enough time to rehabilitate someone and that mixing with criminals makes them more likely to reoffend after release.
But critics say the Scottish Government is disregarding the importance of prison as a deterrent.
A Scottish Government report on the consultation said: ‘Short sentences are disruptive to social and community ties which support desistance and also provide little opportunity for addressing needs whilst in custody.
‘Further, keeping people in prison is costly to the public purse. There are, thus, clear reasons for moving away from the use of short-term sentences.’
In his foreword to the consultation, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: ‘Scotland has a comparatively high imprisonment rate by international standards – the imprisonment rate in Scotland is one of the highest in Western or Northern Europe.
‘I am determined to change that situation by reducing the use of custody so that imprisonment is used appropriately as the option of last resort.’
Instead of jail, offenders will receive Community Payback Orders (CPOs), which typically include unpaid work,
drugs or alcohol treatment and supervision by probation workers. Scottish Government figures for 2014-15 showed 32.7 per cent of those given CPOs reoffended.
The scrapping of short sentences is the latest example of the justice system short-changing victims.
This newspaper revealed how a scheme called Clean Slate, whereby prisoners are offered an amnesty on outstanding crimes, has been trialled in Glasgow and could be rolled out Scotland-wide.
Critics have said a softening of guidelines surrounding Home Detention Curfews will put emptying jails ahead of protecting the public.
But the radical expansion of the presumption against short sentences will have the greatest impact yet on Scotland’s prison landscape, giving a ‘get out of jail free’ card to thousands of criminals.
The Government has held talks with groups such as Scottish Women’s Aid, which is concerned about domestic abusers being spared prison. It wants domestic abuse to be exempt from the changes.
Chief executive Dr Marsha Scott said: ‘One per cent of perpetrators in Scotland get a sentence of over a year. The vast majority do not get custody and those that do are between three months and a year.
‘So what we are talking about is, mostly, short sentences – and women want them to be available to keep them safe.’
But a source close to the Government said: ‘The Government is going to take action.
‘They’ve consulted on it and there’s strong pressure to act. I think the prison population is a big driver. It keeps going up and up. The consultation showed strong support for ending sentences of less than a year.’
Nicola Sturgeon’s Programme for Government, launched in September last year, promised it would ‘take action to reduce the number of short-term prison sentences for both men and women’.
Yesterday, the Government confirmed that it was committed to taking action over the next four months.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We continue to discuss the proposal to strengthen the presumption against short sentences with stakeholders following our consultation on the issue.
‘It is only right that we take the time to consider these views and we will announce our next steps in due course.
‘The proposal is only one part of our ongoing work to reduce the use of short-term imprisonment.’
The Scottish Prison Service declined to comment on whether its rehabilitation programmes were proving ineffective.
SENDING a criminal to prison is society’s strongest and most emphatic measure of disapproval.
For the offender, the removal of liberty should be a punishment; and for those who would commit crime, the threat of incarceration should be a deterrent.
Most importantly, however, for the victims of crime, locking a criminal in jail should send a powerful message: you have been wronged – but justice is on your side.
By contrast, the SNP’s plans to scrap jail sentences of less than a year – as revealed in today’s Scottish Mail on Sunday– send a very different message.
Some 11,000 criminals – including violent thugs, thieves and con men – last year received jail terms of less than 12 months, most of whom would not have been locked up at all under the Scottish Government’s new rules. Instead, they would have been returned to the very communities they tormented, sentenced to nothing more onerous than a curfew, an electronic tag or a Community Payback Order to paint fences or mow grass.
Victims of crime will be right to see this new policy as a slap in the face.