Scottish prison population ‘likely to increase’ following abolition of early-release

Despite the number of under-18s in custody plummeting by 70 per cent in recent years Scotland’s prison population has grown by about 33 per cent since the year 2000.

At the start of the millennium the prison population was 5,308. Today it is 7,647.

This is in excess of similarly sized nations including Norway, Finland and Denmark.

In the Nordic countries, prison populations are between 50 and 30 per cent smaller according to the Howard League for Penal Reform.

The Scottish government is consulting on further reduction in the use of short-term prison sentences of six months or less.

Earlier this year it scrapped plans for a new women’s “super prison”.

A spokeswoman for the Howard League for Penal Reform said: “There are a number of factors that determine the size of the prison population, not least of which are sentencing decisions,” said a spokeswoman for the Howard League for Penal Reform.

“There have been some successes in recent years, most notably the decline in the youth custody rate. However, the female prison population has increased by 120 per cent since 2000, and the numbers of those in prison on remand have increased by 50 per cent over the same period.”

In June Holyrood passed legislation to bring an end to automatic early release for prisoners jailed for over four years.

The Prisoners (Control of Release) (Scotland) Bill was passed by 67-0, with 46 abstentions.

Under the new law, no long-term prisoner in Scotland will be eligible for automatic release after two thirds of their sentence and there will now be a mandatory six-month period of supervision for the most serious of offenders.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said at the time that the bill would help create “a more balanced justice system” in Scotland.

The Howard League spokeswoman added: “Once it takes full effect, recent legislation that will change the regime of early release for long term prisoners is likely to increase the size of the prison population.”