SPS autonomy threatened

Justice Minister to announce tighter controls on prison service

News, 3 December 2004

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson is to tighten controls on the Scottish Prison Service in a bid to reduce reoffending.

Under the new measures, which will be announced on Monday, ministers will take back responsibility for key decision-making within the Scottish Prison Service as part of a new SPS governance framework.

However Jamieson will not go as far as setting up a national correctional agency to take over from the SPS.

While Tony Cameron, chief executive of the SPS is likely to keep his job, he will lose much of his autonomy and will be made accountable to MSPs. Decisions that will impact significantly on communities and go beyond the prison gates including the open or closure of prisons or the approval of major contracts will be made by ministers.

The SPS is to be given a new legal requirement to work more closely with council social work departments to cut down on the high levels of re-offending in Scotland, where six out of 10 prisoners are reconvicted within two years of their release from prison.

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said: “Next week I will be launching our Criminal Justice Plan. It aims to break down the barriers between what happens in prison and what happens in the community. We must ensure that when prisoners are released there are the right support and ‘throughcare’ measures in place, to reduce the likelihood of them re-offending once they are back in the community.

“Much of the focus during the Reducing Reoffending consultation has been on the role of local authorities. There is much to address there and on Monday I will set out a new framework – an architecture if you like – to deliver the integrated approach we need to ensure that offenders do not slip through the net. But there must be change also to the Scottish Prison Service if such integrated arrangements are to work – and be seen to work by the public and politicians at both a local and national level.

“Better joint working will help prisons play a much stronger role in ending re-offending behaviour and in particular help address the revolving door of re-offending that sees offenders entering prison for short periods during which little is done to address the behaviour that brought them there. Communities who are paying the price for this re-offending – both in terms of crime and in terms of prison costs - expect better."