Should Scotland decriminalise all drugs and only use prisons as a last resort?
Our jails are full, it’s mostly the poor and addicted behind bars, and violent crime is rising. What can Scotland do to make our country a safer and more just society? Our Writer at Large speaks to one the nation’s leading criminologists Dr Alistair Frase
IT might help to think of Dr Alistair Fraser and his team as mechanics. They lift the bonnet of the Scottish criminal justice system and poke around inside to work out if the engine is fit for purpose. They want to know how “just” this nation of ours really is in 2022, and their findings will make uncomfortable reading for the Scottish Government.
Fraser, one of the nation’s leading criminologists, is director of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, run by the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Strathclyde.
There are serious deficits in Scotland when it comes to the notion of justice – nearly all driven by inequality, with mostly the poorest people in society, often suffering from drink or drug problems, landing behind bars.
Scotland should consider decriminalising drugs, Fraser says, and also setting up a Citizens’ Assembly-style forum where those who have been at the sharp end of crime, poverty and imprisonment can advise the Government on how to create a fairer justice system. Jail should be a “last resort” as prison “perpetuates a cycle of harm”.
Doublethink
SCOTLAND is engaged in doublethink when it comes to justice: we believe we’re a just, equal society, but the reality is much different and darker. As Fraser says: “The temptation in Scotland is to say that we’re a just nation, that there’s something intuitively, instinctively just, fair and equal about us, that we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns. But when you look at the evidence, I’m not really sure that stacks up.
“There’s a story we tell ourselves, a kind of national narrative about justice and equality, but when you look at the reality, when you look in the shadows, you see a lot of inequality and injustice. There’s this national story of ‘justness’ but also something happening underneath that’s darker.”
He adds: “In many cases, our criminal justice system doesn’t do anything for social justice, and often compounds inequality and perpetuates injustice.”
Prison problem
THE most glaring problem, Fraser believes, is the prison system. “There’s a comparatively high rate of imprisonment in Scotland,” he says. “Scotland is an outlier in Europe, with one of the highest rates of imprisonment. The Scottish Government says it’s committed to reducing that, but it’s not really moved anywhere. The Scottish Prison Commission looked at setting a target of reducing the prison population from 7,500 to 5,000 in 2008 – it’s not moved, it’s still the same.”
Scotland, he notes, “has increased the number of people under community sentences while not reducing the number of people going to prison, so the result is more people subject to some kind of state supervision”.
In Scotland, the poorest and most vulnerable tend to end up in jail. Fraser explains: “There are massive crossovers