Scotland's prison population falls to 10-year low

By The Newsroom
Published 26th Oct 2016, 09:28 BST
Updated 27th Oct 2016, 17:13 BST
Prison population at ten year low. Picture: Paul Faith/PA WirePrison population at ten year low. Picture: Paul Faith/PA Wire
Prison population at ten year low. Picture: Paul Faith/PA Wire
Prison should be used only for those who have committed the most serious crimes, Scotland's chief inspector said as he welcomed figures showing the number of inmates is at its lowest level for almost a decade.

David Strang said he has met “too many people” in prison with mental health or addiction problems who cannot get the treatment and care they need.

Publishing his annual report yesterday, the chief inspector of prisons highlighted the growing challenge of providing healthcare, particularly for the growing number of older men jailed for historical sexual offences.

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Mr Strang said he supported extending the presumption against short prison sentences as well as greater use of non-custodial sentencing and the extension of the use of electronic monitoring – particularly to reduce the number of unconvicted prisoners held on remand.

Mr Strang described a fall in the prison population from 7,731 in 2014-15 to 7,675 in 2015-16 as “encouraging”.