Warning over impact on prison population after new curbs on electronic tagging

Ministers have been warned the pressure on Scotland’s prisons will be “huge” after it emerged the number of offenders being allowed to serve part of their sentence using an electronic tag has fallen by around 75 per cent.

Rules surrounding home detention curfews (HDCS) were tightened last month to exclude those with a history of violence, knife offences or links to organised crime.

It followed the murder of Craig Mcclelland, 31, who was stabbed to death in Paisley last year by James Wright, who had been “unlawfully at large” for five months.

Wright, who had 16 previous convictions, including two for knife crimes, had breached the terms of an HDC in February 2017 just days after being released from prison.

Colin Mcconnell, chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, said the number of those being released on HDC had fallen by 75 per cent since the new restrictions were introduced.

He told MSPS on the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee the number of HDCS being approved had fallen from 25 to 30 a week to just seven a week.

Mr Mcconnell said: “In terms of the situation now, there is a considerable restriction and presumption against the grant of HDC, which has resulted in approaching a 75 per cent reduction in the use of HDC.

“Where at one time we may well have somewhere between 25 and 30 grants of HDC per week, we’re now down to seven.”

He added: “We’ve moved from a presumption for to a presumption against. It shouldn’t surprise us then with the restrictions we put in place ... that we’ve seen a sea change in the level of grant of HDC.”

Wendy Sinclair-gieben, HM chief inspector of prisons, said: “My concern is that if we become riskaverse on HDC, we will also become risk-averse on parole and people going to the open [prison] estate.

“It means the pressure on the prisons – some of which are already struggling – is going to become huge and I really worried about that ahead of time. It’s a very testing time at the moment because we have that distinct evidence that the change to the HDC has had an impact.”

Last month, justice secretary Humza Yousaf said the rules surrounding HDCS would be tightened after a damning report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) said 24 offenders had been unlawfully at large for more than four years.

In her report, HM Inspector of Constabulary Gill Imery said the processes around HDCS needed to be “significantly improved”.