Major reforms planned for justice system include war on drugs in jail
Prisoners would be given more fresh air and court buildings will be modified to make them less traumatising places for victims and witnesses under sweeping reforms to the justice system proposed by a Scottish Parliament committee.
The Criminal Justice Committee has detailed some of the short and long-term changes it wants to see made in the Scottish justice sector.
Prisoners would be given more “purposeful activity” while incarcerated, such as work, education and vocationaltraining,counsellingandother rehabilitative programmes, while there would be work carried out to tackle the high levels of drugs and the influence of serious and organised crime groups in jails.
Also set for reform is a review of the Victim Notification Scheme, including assessing whether it may be inadvertently retraumatising victims withunexpectedcontact,while those alleging a sexual offence would be given a single trauma-informedsourceofcontact fromreportinguntiltheconclusion of legal proceedings.
The committee has laid out 60 actions for the Scottish Government and its partner agencies such as the prison service, courts and prosecutors. It says it hopes the moves would improveoutcomesintheseareas and find solutions to some of the “stubborn problems” in the system.
Court buildings would be remodelled to ensure that victimsdonotinadvertentlycome into casual contact with the accused, while other measures totacklescotland’sdrugsdeath problem include following the recommendations of the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce, some of which date from April 2020.
Committee convener MSP Audreynicollsaid:“ourinquiries into the Scottish justice sector have exposed once again many deep-rooted problems.
“We know these cannot be solved overnight and there are few easy solutions. However, ourcommitteeisdeterminedto see progress made in this parliamentary session. As a critical friend to the Scottish Government and its justice partners, we want them to use our recommendations to drive forward progress and implement changes.”
Scottishconservativeshadow justicesecretaryjamiegreene, who sits on the Justice Committee, said: "During the committee's work, we saw a justice system that often feels more focused on the needs of offendersthantheirvictims.thescottish Government has been late to react to its flawed victim notification scheme, which needs overhauled rather than reviewed.
“Next to nothing has been doneregardingthemuch-lauded drug deaths taskforce, while deathsarethehighestonrecord and drug activity is rife in prisons.”
He added: “It is too late for the victims who have been failed and the communities which have been destroyed by the scourge of drugs, but the SNP must act now to protect victims and the vulnerable, rather than criminals, as their softtouch approach to justice currently does.”
Lastyear,thejusticecommittee called on the Scottish Government to “explore additional funding that would be more radical” to reform the justice system.