Fine defaulters' alternative to jail
3 Oct 05
Summary Justice Bill likely to introduce mandatory supervised attendance orders
A scheme to tackle record prison numbers will see offenders who fail to pay fines given an alternative to jail.
Mandatory supervised attendance orders (SAOs) are likely to form part of the new Summary Justice Bill to be introduced next year. This follows the success of pilot schemes running in Glasgow and Ayr which have seen more than 700 offenders who did not pay their fines in the last five months given the community-based SAOs instead.
The pilot schemes make it mandatory for sheriffs to impose an SAO for anyone brought back to court for not paying fines under £500 imposed for crimes such as breach of the peace, minor theft and road traffic offences.
Those who favour the scheme say imprisoning people for not paying fines is a waste of money and fails to tackle their likelihood of reoffending. At any one time, an average 61 people who have not paid fines are in prison, costing around £2 million a year.
An Executive spokesperson said that part of the Summary Justice Bill would look at reducing the numbers of minor offenders sent to prison and that SAOs were part of that process.