There is so much on the TV just now about the “early release” of prisoners at their 40% point. It is doing my utter box in though because it is being widely misunderstood.

Here’s the bottom line: the way the system works for the vast majority of prisoners in Scotland is that their sentence is split between a prison and the community. However, to call access to the community a “release” is erroneous.

Anybody who successfully (or automatically) manages to transfer from doing their sentence in a closed conditions prison, to doing it in the community is under very strict licence conditions, one of which is always “comply with any instructions fro the supervising officer.” There are a few more standard conditions but also the parole board (for Scotland) can add any additional conditions they feel are appropriate. Often, these are related to a prisoner’s offences but they can also come as a result of the risk assessments which are completed in custody.

Okay, so I get that they are in the community but the word “release” means to set someone free and a person under strict licence conditions in the community can hardly be called “free”.

I know many people who have been recalled to prison because they have broken their licence conditions and I also know of many people who have been granted parole and haven’t been recalled. I am quite satisfied that the monitoring is sufficiently rigorous so I’m confident that anyone who does break their conditions would be recalled.

The thing is there needs to be a way for someone to be monitored and subjected to additional help and control following a prison sentence. It is a vital part of reintegration into the community. Without it, someone would simply be abandoned and reoffending rates would soar resulting in many more victims. The only question, therefore, is “when?”

In a way, the length of a prison sentence is fairly arbitrary. If someone can behave properly in the community then surely that is a good thing – indeed, the aim of a criminal justice system. So does it really matter if it’s achieved at 10%, 40% or 60%?

However, my biggest point is that if you blindly believe that the legal system never gets it wrong and that wrongful convictions do not happen then, logically, you must also believe that the parole system works. You must allow prisoners to serve their sentences according to decisions made by the Parole Board for Scotland.

Alternatively, if you realise that the whole system is broken and in desperate need of reform, then please contact your MSP and instruct them to review the whole system including the rules by which juries are routinely being prevented from having access to all of the available information resulting in widespread perversions of justice.

NaN.