By John Lamont MSP, Conservative Justice spokesman in the Scottish Parliament
Following Ken Clarke's announcement yesterday about short term sentences, I thought I should set out the Scottish Conservative position on this matter. The media has been suggesting that the Scottish party is taking a very different approach to our colleagues at Westminster. However, Scotland has always had a different criminal justice regime so it is appropriate that the emphasis of our policy should fit with the distinct nature of our system.
We believe that prison serves four functions to our society; to protect the public, deter, punish and rehabilitate offenders. Short term prison sentences will always be a necessary part of any summary justice system.
We have always been clear in our opposition to a presumption against short term sentence of 6 months or less, or as is now the case in Scotland, 3 months of less. We recognise that there is an issue with re-offending rates; 74% of those who served a custodial sentence of 6 months or less in 2005/6 re-offended within two years. It is however not the sentencing that needs to be restructured but the way in which offenders are rehabilitated.
We agree with Ken Clarke’s Rehabilitation Revolution, an intelligent and transparent approach to sentencing that targets the causes of re-offending, so making our communities safer. We also agree with Ken Clarke and David Cameron that short term sentences still have a role to play in sentencing policy. However, it is bizarre for the SNP Government at Holyrood to suggest that people can be rehabilitated in their communities based on a few hours of contact each week but nothing can be achieved during a short term prison sentence. Simply because the prisons in Scotland are currently not successfully rehabilitating does not mean we should abolish these sentences completely.
On the other side of the coin, a sentence of six months—or even three—can be long enough to give the victim of domestic violence a welcome respite and the opportunity to make a break from the past and create a new home and life for themselves and their family if that is their wish.
The courts in Scotland don’t sentence someone to a period in custody lightly. There are very few in prison who are there as first time offenders. The truth of the matter is that those who are in prison on a sentence of 6 months or less are there because they need to be. Either they are a threat to society or are repeat offenders, persistent in their criminal behaviour and not adhering to community disposals. In 2008/9, only 65% of community sentence orders were successfully completed. Only when community sentencing become a viable and robust alternative to custody can we expect our courts to use it with confidence.
