Minister warns sheriffs: don't jail so many

EXCLUSIVE: As minister calls for rethink on penal policy, doctors seek
change in drugs law

JENNY BOOTH
Home Affairs Correspondent

SHERIFFS are to be told by the Scottish Office home affairs minister, Henry
McLeish, that they are sending too many people to jail.

Mr McLeish says that sheriffs throughout the country are jailing nearly two
thirds more offenders than they were seven years ago and they should ease
off and consider value for taxpayers' money.

Mr McLeish spoke as calls intensified for cannabis to be made a legal
prescription drug, and as new drug treatment orders were confirmed as a
measure to reduce drug crime and cut the number of offenders behind bars.

The spiralling level of drugrelated crime accounts for half of Scotland's
record prison population and cost the Scottish public nearly £1 billion a
year.

Yesterday, Mr McLeish called for a rethink on penal policy in an attempt to
drive down the costs of punishing crime and to provide a more effective form
of justice.

Scottish Office figures showed that between 1990 and 1995 sheriffs in each
of the six Scottish sheriffdoms had jailed more and more of the offenders
coming before them, Mr McLeish revealed.

But research had shown that the costly use of prison had not provided good
value for money because reoffending had remained high in Scotland
particularly among drugrelated offenders.

Mr McLeish plans to use the "dramatic" figures the study uncovered to
deliver a strongly worded message to jail fewer people and to use community
based sentences including drug rehabilitation more often, when he meets
the Sheriffs Association next week.

The minister said: "These new figures on imprisonment show dramatic
increases in the percentage of people being jailed."

"Of course, there may be valid reasons, but I should like to know why there
should be these dramatic figures.

"We need a wider debate on value for money, and alternatives to custody must
form part of that debate.

"Ideally we need a menu of noncustodial alternatives in every sheriffdom of
Scotland, and we need to ensure that sheriffs are aware of all the
alternatives open to them."

According to Scottish Office figures, the sheriffdom of North Strathclyde
has shown a near twothirds rise in the number imprisoned, from 13 per cent
in 1990 to 21 per cent in 1995.

The increase brought it level with the sheriffdom of Glasgow and
Strathkelvin which, in 1995, also jailed more than one in five of convicted
offenders.

The average proportion of criminals jailed in Scotland in 1995 was 14 per
cent but this was 40 per cent up from the national average of 10 per cent
in 1990.

Meanwhile, separate research by two Scottish academics had shown high rates
of reoffending. On average 72 per cent of 1,990 prisoners were reconvicted
within two years 92 per cent of prisoners with serious drug problems
reoffended.

Mr McLeish called for a rethink on penal policy in Scotland, so that
sentences were more effective. Prison should be saved as a sanction for
those who posed a risk to the public, or for crimes which needed severe
punishment and the deterrent effect of prison, he said.

And sheriffs would need extra training to help them to appreciate all the
alternative sentences to prison, including new plans for electronic tagging,
which will be piloted next year, and for Drug Treatment and Testing Orders.

Yesterday, Mr McLeish announced that he planned to press ahead with
proposals for DTTOs in the Crime and Disorder Bill, which will be introduced
to Parliament before Christmas.

The orders would allow sheriffs to sentence addicts to a rehab programme
lasting six months to three years, instead of jailing them.

Issuing extra details of the DTTO proposals, Mr McLeish said they were
intended to break the cycle of drugfuelled offending and prison. Three
pilot schemes in England had shown that treating drug addicts was more
effective at stopping them from committing crime than sending them to
prison.

Under yesterday's proposals the new DTTOs could however only be imposed if
the offender consented. But addicted offenders who did consent would be
subject to regular drug tests to ensure they stuck to their treatment
programme, and punished in another way if they failed to reform.