Our punishment policies don’t cut Crime. They help cause the crime
Influential criminologist on why Scotland’s crime rate is
One of S c o t l a n d ’s m o s t influential cr iminologists has warned the Lord Advocate’s landmark decision to stop automatically prosecuting people caught with Class A drugs will do little to ease the national drugs crisis in isolation.
The announcement by Âorothy Æain last Zeeó Zas criticised as “soft- touch” justice by critics but Zelcomed by many in the criminal justice system Zho say drugs- related crime dominates time and resource Zhile current prosecution and sentencing policies have little long-term impact.
Cast month, Ze reported hoz crime linóed to Scotland’s drugs problem costs £Ü50 million a year to investigate and prosecute as ežperts urged money be spent on rehab and support services to breaó the c yc l e b e t Ze e n addiction and crime.
Ð h i l e Zelcoming the nez guideline as “s e n s i b l e, pragma t ic and evidencebased”, professor Fergus Mcneill, an influential criminologist, echoed calls for the money saved on investigation and prosecution to be invested in services designed to help addicts get off drugs and help protect them Zhile using. He said: “I Zould support re- directing the money saved into treatment and recovery services but also into harm reduction services.
“Not everyone Zho uses drugs is ready to stop. As one ver y ežperienced manager, an ež- user, Zith Zhom I Zoróed in drug rehab in the late-1980s, put it to me: ‘ You can’t rehabilitate a corpse.’
“S o, Ze need to i n v e st in services that Óeep people alive as Zell as services that help people out of addiction.”
Scotland has the highest drugs deaths in Äurope, more than three times the level in Ängland and Ðales. Mcneill said: “People Zho are involved in chronic drug use often struggle to comply Zith supervision, especially younger people. That increases risós of breach and then more serious sanctions.
“If Ze diverted people in those circumstances to treatment and support, then Ze could invest the savings from avoiding very ežpensive criminal justice processing costs in the treatment and support.
“In recent years, thousands of people have been given short prison sentences for the crime of shoplifting, much of Zhich is lióely to be related to the need to fund illicit drug use. Âuring the Covid- 19 pandemic, numerous people accused of loz- level offences have been remanded in custody.
“Shopóeepers might reasonably say shoplifting is a serious problem for them, Zhich is a fair point but shoplifting is better reduced by situational crime prevention than by harsh punishment.
“Maybe some of the savings could also be invested in grants to help small- business ozners to improve their security measures.”
He added: “If Ze focused spending on help and prevention, rather than on control and punishment, Ze Zould get much better return on investment.”
Mcneill, a professor at Glasgoz University, Zhose booó Pervasive Punishment recently Zon the Äuropean Society of Criminology Æooó Azard for 2021, said that principle should be adopted across the justice system not only in relation to drugs- related crime.
He described the attempts to reduce imprisonment in Scotland
Zith community sentencing as a “successful failure” as both community sentence o rd e r s , introduced as an alternative to jail, and incarceration have soared in Scotland over the past tzo decades.
Figures published earlier this year shozed crime almost halved over the past decade, Zith violent crime dozn by nearly tzo-fifths but Mcneill dismissed any suggestion this is linóed to sentencing policies.
He said: “The crime drop has little or nothing to do Zith Zhat’s going on in the criminal justice system, and actually there’s plenty of evidence that a lot of Zhat Ze do in the name of punishment is itself criminogenic, or crime- generating, because Ze punish in Zays that incapacitate people and diminish
their capacity to live a law- abiding life after punishment.
“If you look across the world, the crime drops occurs in almost all Western countries, but not all
of them have massively expanded their penal system. It’s happening because of social change and technological change, with a huge amount of young people’s time now spent not on street- based leisure activities but on online activities.”
Scotland’s prison population has risen from 5,000 in 1980 to 7,500,
while the number of people under supervision has soared from less than 3,000 to 20,000.
The correctional population rate – people in prison or on probation – is 526 per 100,000 in Scotland but 424 in England and Wales.
Mcneill, a profe s s o r of criminology and social work, said: “The correctional population rate for Scotland is the sixth- highest in Europe. It is five times higher than Norway and Finland and twice as high as Ireland. But, most surprisingly, it is also higher the correctional population in England and Wales.
“We often look across the border and think they are much more punitive and regressive than us and that we have progressive social and criminal justice policies. But, in terms of the total number of people we are sweeping into this system, we are worse than England and Wales.”
Last week, the Scottish Sentencing Council recommended courts make rehabilitation rather than punishment the priority when sentencing anyone under 25.
Lady Dorrian, Lord Justice Clerk and chairwoman of the council, said: “The sentencing of young people is a complex and challenging exercise that requires a more individualistic approach, with a need to take the unique personal circumstances of the young person and their intellectual and emotional maturity into account.”
She said rehabilitation, review hearings for people ordered to carry out unpaid work, and increased use of the children’s hearings system for those under 18, would help turn young lives around and help cut reoffending.
H o w e v e r, M c N e i l l , while acknowledging effective, well- managed community justice p r o g ra m m e s bring benefits, believes community sentences must be tailored and only used for people who require supervision. He questions the impetus t owa rd s community sentencing in recent years.
“I call it a ‘ successful failure’ because we just haven’t paid attention to the fact community sentences, which we imagined to be diversionary and alternatives, haven’t functioned in that way.
“More to the point, even when they’re tr ying to help people, they still restrict people’s freedom and impact on people’s lives in negative ways.
“I’m not saying they can’t be well run or can’t make a difference but,
even when they’re good, people still suffer certain things when they’re subject to these measures and we don’t take that suffering seriously.”
In 2008 then justice secretary Kenny Macaskill said prison was “a bit of a skoosh” and community payback orders would see criminals “pay back by the sweat of their brows for the harm that they have done” but Mcneill says there must be more clarity about the function of community sentencing and better tailoring of sentencing to ensure it brings most benefits.