FOR Billy Smith, who spent two weeks in Saughton prison on remand, Dr Andrew McLellan's criticism of the system was long overdue. The prison system did nothing to help him, nor did it deter him from reoffending.
When his mother and both his brothers died of cancer within eight months, he turned to drugs and alcohol. He asked for help and counselling, but was given a packet of anti-depressants.
When later released in an alcoholic haze, he assaulted his partner and spent two weeks on remand awaiting his court date. When he was released on bail, he was referred to Sacro - a body that works to reduce offending - on its alcohol education programme. It worked.
''Prison is the pits, they only show you the good bits on telly,'' he said. ''Half the men should not be there. They need help, not prison. In this day and age, it's ridiculous that someone has to go to prison before they can get help if they've got a drink problem.''
Scotland has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in Europe, beaten only by Portugal, despite promises from successive ministers that they would reduce the prison population.
Few would argue that violent prisoners should be released to ease the strain, but Dr McLellan's report says that there are far too many people in prison who should not be there at all and whose behaviour could be addressed more effectively in the community.
Traditionally, prisons were seen as places where the guilty should be punished and rehabilitation was a sideline. In more recent times, the focus has changed.
Prison governors now focus far more on the rehabilitative opportunities of prison life, using re-education programmes, drug rehabilitation and even yoga.
However, they admit there is almost nothing they can do to reform people on short-term sentences, and programmes for those on long-term sentences are thwarted by overcrowding.
Recidivism levels show that giving someone a short-term sentence will not dissuade them from repeat offending. In fact, those in prison for between three and six months are most likely to reoffend, with 55% returned to custody within two years.
In 2001, 83% of prisoners in Scotland were serving sentences of six months or less. The average cost per prisoner to the taxpayer per prisoner was (pounds) 28,114. Critics argue that this money would be better spent on community rehabilitation.
Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, has promised to reduce the prison population and try to tackle reoffending rates. In some respects, her hands are tied. She cannot tell judges how to sentence offenders. However, the minister could change the legislation, increase alternatives to custody and increase resources.
One of the biggest groups thought to be clogging up the system is fine defaulters, many of whom will only serve two or three days. Last year, more than 7000 people, including 573 women, ended up in custody for failing to pay fines.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article