And I thought We Were Getting Tough On Knife Crime etc.

[MackaysCentreSpot]

THOUSANDS of offenders will beat jail under proposals for new community "payback" sentences announced today.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said the new community orders would replace prison sentences of under six months which usually mean criminals being locked up for half that time.

 

The new orders will require offenders to start unpaid work within a

ADVERTISEMENT

week and complete the order within six months. Judges will be told not to impose jail terms of less than six months unless they feel there is no other option.

 

It means housebreakers, knife criminals, people guilty of serious assaults and certain sex criminals may no longer be jailed.

 

The Scottish Government says it has no target for reducing the number of offenders going to prison, but the figure is expected to be in the thousands.

 

The independent Prisons Commission, chaired by Henry McLeish, said in July that Scotland's prison population should be cut from 7700 to 5000, with sentences reserved for the most serious and dangerous offenders.

 

Some 14,686 jail terms under six months were handed down in Scotland in 2006-07 ? 81 per cent of the total ? though some offenders may have had several sentences each.

 

Mr MacAskill said the orders would help cut re-offending as he announced the Scottish Government's new justice plans and its response to the report of the Prisons Commission.

 

Other initiatives include review hearings to check progress of community sentences and allowing judges to order electronic tagging of people on bail.

 

Mr MacAskill said: "It is unacceptable (that] the prison population in Scotland is one of the highest in Europe, yet offending rates are at a record low.

 

"Fifty-eight per cent of offenders who get a Community Service Order have kept a clean record after two years. This compares with only 26 per cent of those released from prison sentences of six months or less."

 

Labour's justice spokesman Richard Baker said the public would be "outraged" by the move.

 

He said: "Because of Kenny MacAskill's inability to deal with his own prison crisis, he wants to empty Scottish prisons.

 

"We have recently seen a 14 per cent increase in breaches in community sentences. To end six-month prison sentences isn't just foolhardy, it's plain stupid."

 

A Government spokeswoman added: "If someone needs to be in prison, they will be in prison."

[The Rev]

Where about did you find this?

[milky_26]

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Criminals-dodge-prison-with-plans.4800267.jp

[djf]

I think the real problem here is that housebreakers, knife carriers and people who carry out serious assaults get less than 6 months in the first place.

[Big D]

We have the highest per capita prison population in Europe, the highest reoffending rates, and amongst the highest per capita crime rates overall. Would that not suggest our current solution to lock up the mentally ill, the addicted and the fine defaulters is actually exacerbating the problem. Certainly, the current solution is not working.

[tommythejambo]

We have the highest per capita prison population in Europe, the highest reoffending rates, and amongst the highest per capita crime rates overall. Would that not suggest our current solution to lock up the mentally ill, the addicted and the fine defaulters is actually exacerbating the problem. Certainly, the current solution is not working.

 

To be fair it depends on the crime.

 

In some cases community service may do the job.

 

However, knife crime is knife crime, lock the ******s up. **** of the Earth.

[Boris]

If the sentence is for less than 6 months then how much of a detterent is prison?

 

Seems a fair proposal, on the face of it.

[Deevers]

Problem is that Prison it's present form is neither a deterrant nor does in rehablitate.

[speedbump]

Another promise down the swanny from the nats.