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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE CONTEXT
Scotland faces an important choice with regard to how it uses imprisonment. Its rapidly growing and overcrowded prisons are making it more difficult to secure public safety and respond effectively to serious crime. Imprisonment can have harmful consequences for prisoners and the communities to which they return.
The Scottish Prisons Commission was convened to take stock of the problems and develop solutions. The principles guiding its efforts were: punishment must be visible, swift and fair; communities should be at the heart of penal reform and action; prison populations must be controlled to achieve Scotland's wider strategic objectives; Scotland can be an international model.
The Commission's view was that gaining control over prison numbers is the necessary first step to limit its damaging effects and to focus efforts on more effective punishments.
How Do We Use Imprisonment? (p11)
In examining how the issue of prison numbers might be tackled, some striking facts emerged to underline the scale and complexity of the problem facing us. This section of the report reveals:
- Scotland imprisons more of its people than many other places in Europe.
- The prison population has increased in every year of this century; it is projected to reach 8,700 inmates by 2016.
- Increased use of prisons is the result of using it for those who are troubled and troubling rather than dangerous.
- Prisons draw their inmates from the least well-off communities.
- High prison populations do not reduce crime; they are more likely to create pressures that drive reoffending than to reduce it.
An Opportunity for Action (p17)
In seeking how we might make better use of imprisonment there is no need to reinvent the wheel. We know what works and what doesn't. The problem is not knowledge but action. Re-thinking our uses of prison provides us with an opportunity to:
- Take crime seriously. Overall, recorded crime rates are slightly lower now than ten years ago but there are important and worrying areas of increase, including in some types of violent crime. Scotland faces real problems with violence, alcohol and drugs. Current uses of imprisonment, however, limit the ability to use prison effectively to target the most serious forms of offending and to tackle the social problems that underlie them.
- Engage the public in rational debate. Public surveys show that people feel drug and alcohol abuse is a bigger problem than crime is, suggesting openness to a rational debate about crime and punishment. This will require, however, that people are provided with information about how and with what effect different forms of punishment work. Greater visibility of community sentences would improve public awareness.
- Make evidence-informed policy. We already have good evidence about what works; the challenge is to implement good practices more broadly and more effectively coordinate the work of different agencies.
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
The Commission's 23 recommendations represent a comprehensive and inter-dependent set of proposals which, taken together, offer a systematic and evidence-based response to the challenges that we face.
Rethinking Punishment (p26)
The evidence that we have reviewed leads us to the conclusion that to use imprisonment wisely is to target it where it can be most effective - in punishing serious crime and protecting the public.
1. To target imprisonment better and make it more effective, the Commission recommends that imprisonment should be reserved for people whose offences are so serious that no other form of punishment will do and for those who pose a threat of serious harm to the public.
2. To move beyond our reliance on imprisonment as a means of punishing offenders, the Commission recommends that paying back in the community should become the default position in dealing with less serious offenders.
Prosecution and Court Processes (p28)
In seeking to better target the use of imprisonment, it is essential to explore the whole of the criminal justice process; it is not just a question of sentencing and punishment; it is also a question of who to prosecute and when, and of who needs to be remanded in custody before trial or sentence. That requires the availability of suitable options at every stage in the process and it places a premium on avoiding damaging delays in the court process.
3. To make sure that court business is properly focussed only on those cases that need to be formally prosecuted, the Commission recommends that the Government extend the types and availability of effective alternatives to prosecution coordinated by enhanced court-based social work units.
4. To make the court and sentencing process more efficient, the Commission recommends that the Government legislate to place an onus on the Crown to seek to roll-up outstanding matters. 'Rolling-up' means gathering together all of an accused person's outstanding charges, and adjudicating and sentencing them at the same time.
5. To target more effectively the use of remand custody, the Commission recommends that the Government extend the types and availability of bail-related information and supervision services across Scotland, including electronically monitored bail conditions, operated through enhanced court-based social work units.
6. Recognising their age and stage of development - and the potential that young offenders may be negatively influenced by older prisoners - the Commission recommends that the Government explore options for detaining 16 and 17 year olds in secure youth facilities separate from older offenders and those under the age of 16.
7. To bring Scotland into line with international conventions and to deal more appropriately and effectively with younger offenders, the Commission recommends that the Government re-examine the case for diverting 16 and 17 year olds to Specialist Youth Hearings with a wider range of options than are presently available in the Children's Hearings System.
Sentencing and Managing Sentences (p31)
Scotland is a small country but patterns of sentencing - and provision of community sentences - vary greatly. If they are to command public support, both sentencing and the management of sentences need to be more consistent, transparent and intelligible to the public. They also need to be effective.
8. To drive forward consistency and improve the effectiveness of sentencing, the Commission recommends that the Government establish an independent National Sentencing Council ( NSC) to develop clear sentencing guidelines that can be applied nationwide.
9. To lead the implementation of a new Community Supervision Sentence (see 11 below), develop improved services for ex-prisoners and drive forward changes in a diverse criminal justice system, the Commission recommends the establishment of a National Community Justice Council ( NCJC).
10. To address the need for clearer communication with the wider public about sentencing and community sentences, the Commission recommends that the National Sentencing Council and the National Community Justice Council should be jointly charged with enhancing public understanding of, and confidence in, the credibility of both sentencing and the management of community sentences. The NCJC should work with the Scottish Prison Service and the Parole Board for Scotland to enhance public understanding of and confidence in the credibility of release and resettlement arrangements.
11. The Commission recommends that judges 1 should be provided with a wide range of options through which offenders can payback in the community, but that, where sentences involving supervision are imposed, there should be one single Community Supervision Sentence ( CSS) with a wide range of possible conditions and measures. By payback, we mean finding constructive ways to compensate or repair harms caused by crime. It involves making good to the victim and/or the community whether by unpaid work, engaging in rehabilitative work that benefits both victims and the community by reducing reoffending, or some combination of these and other approaches.
12. To enhance clarity and consistency in sentencing and to promote a problem-solving approach in criminal justice, the Commission recommends the development of a 3-stage approach to sentencing and managing community sentences:
- Stage 1: How much payback?
- Stage 2: What kind of payback?
- Stage 3: Checking progress and payback.
13. To increase the visibility, credibility and effectiveness of the new Community Supervision Sentence, the Commission recommends the establishment of progress courts that enable swift and regular review of progress and compliance with community sentences - and that deal robustly with offenders who do not pay back.
14. To reduce the use of short-term prison sentences, the Commission recommends that the Government bring forward legislation to require a sentencing judge, who would otherwise have imposed a sentence of 6 months imprisonment or less, to impose a Community Supervision Sentence instead, except in particular circumstances.
15. To provide judges with an additional option in sentencing and to keep certain offenders focussed on reforming, the Commission recommends that the Government bring forward legislation to enable a sentencing judge who has formed the view that a custodial sentence is appropriate, to consider whether it should be served as a conditional sentence. A conditional sentence means that the period of custody is imposed but suspended subject to the offender keeping to a strict set of conditions.
16. Conditional sentences represent a more appropriate and transparent use of tagging than the current Home Detention Curfew scheme which is used by prison governors to facilitate early release. Given that it raises concerns about clarity and transparency in sentencing, the Commission recommends that, subject to the full implementation of our other recommendations, the current Home Detention Curfew scheme should be terminated.
Community Justice, Prisons and Resettlement (p41)
Resettling prisoners so that they are less likely to reoffend - and less likely to be recalled to custody - is in all of our interests. It is a challenging and complex task that requires the cooperation of a wide range of agencies and professionals, as well as the support of the public.
17. To provide dynamic leadership in developing the status, visibility, quality, consistency and credibility of criminal justice social work nationwide, the Commission recommends that the National Community Justice Council ( NCJC) should be charged with and resourced to undertake these tasks.
18. To ensure progress in developing services that are available nationwide to address the social and health related needs of many offenders, the Commission recommends that the Government promote recognition across all Government departments, all public services, all sectors and all communities of a duty to reintegrate both those who have paid back in the community and those who have served their time in prison.
19. To address offending behaviour and the underlying causes, the Commission recommends a more restricted and rational use of imprisonment to enable the Scottish Prison Service to get better at regulating prisons and prisoners, at using accommodation resources intelligently to incentivise prisoners to come off and stay off drugs (for example, by providing drug free wings) and at providing and prioritising rehabilitation.
20. To tackle rising rates of recall to custody of released prisoners, the Commission recommends that the Parole Board should be provided with additional options to better manage release and compliance with licence conditions, including drug treatment and testing services and extending electronically-monitored home detention.
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Act 2007 (p47)
21. The Commission recommends that, if the Act is to be implemented, its implementation must follow the implementation of this Commission's other recommendations and the achievement of reductions in the short sentence prison population. Thereafter, the provisions around risk assessment, conditional release and compulsory post-release supervision arrangements should be reserved for those serving 2 years or more. Those serving shorter sentences should be released under licence conditions and directed to support services.
The Open Prison Estate (p52)
22. The Commission recommends that preparing for release and training for freedom be retained and reinforced as the proper purposes of the open estate - not easing overcrowding. We are clear that Scotland will not have a world-leading prison service and a well-run open estate until we reduce the unnecessary, costly, damaging and dangerous overuse of custody.
Our Future (p56)
23. The Commission recommends that the Government pursue a target of reducing the prison population to an average daily population of 5,000, guiding and supporting the efforts of relevant statutory bodies in achieving it. Based on our analysis of the impact of implementing our recommendations, we calculate that it would be possible to reduce the prison population to this level by focusing the use of imprisonment on those who have committed serious crimes and constitute a danger to the public. Our report and our recommendations are not about saving money; they are about investing it wisely and securing better outcomes. Though long-term savings would result from better targeting and limiting the use of imprisonment, the Government and the people of Scotland should be left in no doubt that we first need up-front investment in better services in and for Scotland's communities.
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