Special conditions for sex offenders
17 Jun 05
Unconditional early release of sex offenders may be scrapped
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson has pledged to scrap the unconditional early release of sex offenders, despite criticism from the Sentencing Commission.
The Commission has told Ms Jamieson that sex offenders should be treated in the same way as the rest of the prison population.
At the moment anyone sentenced to less than four years is automatically freed after serving half of their jail term and in most cases conditions of release cannot be imposed.
However Ms Jamieson wants to amend the legislation to make all sex offenders jailed for more than six months subject to licence conditions including supervision on their release. If they breach the conditions they could face jail.