Criminals to walk free amid ‘end of short sentences’

THOUSANDS of dangerous criminals could avoid jail after the Justice Secretary revealed plans to replace short sentences with electronic tagging.

Michael Matheson has called for an ‘imaginative approach’ to keep people out of prison and wants to tag those who would normally face up to a year behind bars.

This comes as the latest statistics show that a convicted killer has been let off with a tag, along with those guilty of attempted murder, sexual assault and violent robberies.

Around 3,000 people a year in Scotland escape jail and are tagged instead.

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said last night: ‘Prison should always be the penalty for Scotland’s worst offenders, both as punishment and to protect the public.’

He said evidence showed electronic tagging works as an alternative in some cases but added: ‘It’s all very well making this announcement, but the Scottish Government needs to provide details about how this scheme will be robustly enforced. We can’t risk a situation where tagging is seen as another soft-touch option which jeopardises public safety.’

Mr Matheson made his comments this week, after a working group set up to examine tagging passed him its recommendations.

He said: ‘We need to redefine what we mean by custody. We need to take an imaginative approach to how we use things like electronic monitoring.

‘When we compare it to other jurisdictions, we use it in a very unsophisticated manner.

‘I want to see us using electronic monitoring to allow us to develop an alternative to custody.’

Tagging is most often used for criminals given a restriction of liberty order – often a curfew.

The number has soared in recent years, from 831 in 2010-11 to 1,172 in 2014-15.

In that year, a convicted killer was given a tag, although it is not known if they committed culpable homicide or caused death another way, such as by dangerous or careless driving.

Electronic tags, usually the size of a digital watch and worn on the ankle, are also used for prisoners given a home detention curfew – allowing them to serve part of their sentence at home.

Almost 3,000 people in Scotland were let off prison with a tag in 2014, according to a Stirling University study published last year.

The plan to expand this follows a consultation by the Scottish Government which could see it extend the move to scrap prison sentences of up to three months to as long as a year. Although this would be only a ‘presumption’ and not an outright ban, it could see more than 5,000 offenders a year spared jail as a result.

Following a visit to Low Moss Prison in Dunbartonshire, Mr Matheson said: ‘We need to move away from this idea that we can be “soft” or “tough” on justice. It is a false dichotomy. We need to be smart about justice.’

On sentences of less than a year, he added: ‘They take up a tremendous amount of resource and we know they are not an effective way of promoting desistance.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Electronic monitoring plays an important role in the Scottish justice system, enabling people with convictions to serve their sentence in the community, while being subject to an element of control.

‘Evidence shows that community sentences are more effective at reducing reoffending than short prison sentences.’