There is a range of issues to consider. First, it is wrong to say that there is no throughcare in prisons. There may be areas in which throughcare needs to improve, and I know that work is being progressed to achieve that, but it is simply wrong to make that statement. I have witnessed at first hand the delivery of throughcare in a range of areas. The Scottish Prison Service has committed to employing 42 throughcare officers who have that responsibility. The officers are working with the different agencies to support prisoners in moving from prison into the community.
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These things take time, but it is important to put on record that a significant amount of work is undertaken by our prison officers—sometimes in very difficult circumstances, such as working with prisoners who come from very difficult backgrounds—to deliver throughcare as effectively as possible. That is not always achieved as well as it could be, because the Scottish Prison Service cannot deliver on its own: it needs to work in partnership with other agencies. I am progressing work through the ministerial group on offender reintegration on housing, health and all the other areas that come into play in ensuring that throughcare for prisoners is delivered much more effectively.
The second issue concerns the ending of automatic early release for short-term prisoners. Notwithstanding the fact that it would not be competent to do that through the bill that is before us today, the independent commission on prisons—as I have mentioned—looked at the issue in detail and recommended a range of measures that would have to be put in place before that aim could be achieved. Some of that work has started and, as I have indicated, I want to look at how we can accelerate it further.
Margaret Mitchell raised the issue of rehabilitating people and protecting the public. There is no doubt that prisons have an important part to play in protecting the public, but we have to look at the evidence base on short-term prison sentences. It shows that, very often, short-term sentences are not effective in tackling offending behaviour. We need to ensure that we take an approach that takes account of that evidence base, which I am keen to do.
I made it very clear when I decided not to go ahead with the plans for Inverclyde prison that we need to ensure that the approach that we take and the model that we use is much more effective in tackling offending behaviour, rather than simply facilitating a revolving door with people going in and out of prison. Expecting a prison, in a short period of time, to be able to turn around an individual’s situation completely is entirely unrealistic.
If we want to address those issues, we have to look at the best ways in which we can deliver short-term sentences. Some sentences may be served in prison, while others may be dealt with through a community disposal. We need to ensure that we deliver in a consistent way that produces better outcomes and assists us in reducing reoffending.
Those are big issues in penal policy. It would be far too simplistic to think that, if we end automatic early release for all short-term prisoners and provide just a wee bit more rehabilitation—or even a significantly greater amount—in prisons, we will be able to deal with those things much more effectively. The evidence shows us that that is not the best way to go in dealing with the issue. We need to focus on disposals that are much more effective in tackling offending behaviour. That means using community disposals that deliver on our aims more effectively in a number of ways.