Prisoner numbers at record high despite 600 releases in six months

Scotland's prison population has climbed to yet another all-time high, despite the emergency early release of more than 600 convicted criminals over the last six months.

On Tuesday, a total of 8,587 inmates were being held in a system designed to accommodate 7,805.

Numerous attempts to address overcrowding have failed to make a long-term impact and the newly re-elected Scottish government has admitted the population has reached critical levels.

It says it is taking further action to get the numbers down and increase capacity across the prison estate.

Since June 2024, more than 1,400 prisoners have been freed early in three waves of emergency releases.

In addition, the automatic release point for some short-term prisoners was changed last year from 50% to 40%. This month it will be reduced again, to 30%.

Prisoners convicted of sexual offences and domestic abuse have been barred from early release but for various reasons the population remains stubbornly high.

The rise in the number of long-term prisoners is being driven in part by an increase in convictions over serious organised crime and historic sexual offences.

Sentences are creeping up; the average jail term has increased by 31% between 2013-14 and 2022-23.

Nearly 2,000 prisoners are being held on remand, awaiting trial or deportation.

Scotland's chief inspector of prisons Sara Snell praised prison staff, saying they have kept the country's jails "relatively safe" despite "unsustainable" overcrowding.

She supports greater use of community sentences, as proposed by the Scottish Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission, which wants a presumption against sentences of less than 24 months.

"As I and my predecessors have said, there's been a stark choice facing Scotland for a long time," she said.

"You either reduce the people coming into custody, or you make custody spaces available for the population you're incarcerating."

An inspection report has highlighted the challenges facing Scotland's third-most overcrowded jail, HMP Kilmarnock.

In March 2024, Kilmarnock became the country's first prison to be moved from the private to the public sector.

Sara Snell said a safe and controlled transfer had been achieved with no prisoner unrest, but standards within the jail had been adversely affected as a result.

Kilmarnock was designed to house 500 prisoners but, as of Tuesday, it was holding 623 - including lifers, gangland criminals and 148 sex offenders.

The jail's governor Craig Thomson has worked in 12 prisons and been in charge of seven during a 41-year career in England, Scotland and Australia.

He says Kilmarnock is still doing what it needs to do, but a large and disparate population is making the task more difficult.

"The downside of being a public sector prison, let's just cut to the chase, the elephant in the room, is we don't legally have the right to reject somebody who turns up at the gate," said Thomson.

"Every van that turns up every day, we must admit those prisoners that turn up from the court.

"Previously, as a commercial private enterprise, there was a ceiling and once we reached the cap, that was it."

Thomson says prison overcrowding is a global problem.

"I think, strategically, there needs to be an all-system approach here," he argues.

"I had a guy who came in here last week from a local court on a two-day sentence. That wasn't supposed to happen.

"We're still getting people serving less than 12 months coming into prison.

"We need to get a political strategy with the courts service. There needs to be a more combined approach to the whole process."

The Prison Officers' Association said the population would continue to grow unless the root causes of criminal activity were addressed.

A spokesperson added: "Scotland's overcrowded and understaffed prisons significantly impact the staff who deal with this high pressure and often volatile situation.

"We urgently need more prison officers to help manage this crisis."

The Scottish Prison Service said it had been managing an extremely high and complex population for more than two years.

That was having "an increasingly destabilising impact" on prisons, with staff "unable to do the critical work of building relationships and supporting rehabilitation".

The Scottish government said work was under way in response to the Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission's recommendations on strengthening community-based alternatives to short custodial sentences.

Funding for community sentences has increased to £169m, new prisons in Glasgow and Inverness will add 464 places and greater use is being made of home detention curfews.

A spokesperson said: "The justice secretary has made clear addressing Scotland's prison population in the medium to long term requires bold, collaborative action to ensure our prisons function effectively and communities remain safe."