Scotland’s prison population higher after early release scheme

The release scheme involved prisoners who had been sentenced to less than four years in jail and who had less than 180 days still to serve.

It did not apply to people convicted of sexual or domestic abuse offences.

However, it has since emerged that more than a third of those who were released were serving sentences for violent crimes.

After four weeks of releases the prison population had fallen by 350 to 7,882.

But within a further three weeks it was back above 8,007 – the target capacity of the prison system.

The latest figures show there were nine more people in prison than there were before the release scheme started.

The Scottish Prison Service said the prison population “was already very high and extremely complex” and had “increased rapidly in recent weeks”.

Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons had written to ministers in May calling for urgent action to cut the prison population, which was close to its highest level ever at the time.

At one point there were 8,365 people behind bars, the highest number since 2012.

Justice secretary Angela Constance said at the time that several prisons were “essentially full”.

She also said the spike in prisoner numbers had “significantly increased the risk to the health, safety and welfare of both prisoners and SPS (Scottish Prison Service) staff, as well as to the security and the good order of the prison estate.”