Anger at 'soft' jail terms for serious attacks

THE Scottish Government has been accused of presiding over a "soft touch" justice system after it emerged that thugs convicted of attempted murder and serious assault had been given prison sentences of less than six months.

New statistics – released under Freedom of Information rules – reveal that since 2003-4, 335 of those found guilty of serious assault were given sentences of less than 182 days. A further three people convicted of attempted murder were also given terms of less than six months.

The data for the most recent year, 2007-8, show 63 people guilty of serious assault were given sentences of six months or less. This represents one in 12 of all those convicted of this offence.

Of the 351 convicted of robbery across Scotland in 2007-8, about a quarter – 85 – were jailed for six months or less, while a fifth of those convicted of crimes of indecency were were given terms of less than six months.

The leniency of the punishments for such serious offences was attacked by opposition politicians, who claimed it made a mockery of SNP plans to replace all jail terms of six months or less with community-based sentences.

Critics said the trend for criminals to spend less time in jail would weaken public faith in the credibility of the justice system.

Even though the figures were similar under Labour, the party's justice spokesman, Paul Martin, said: "These figures are a disgrace and I cannot see how (justice secretary] Kenny MacAskill can defend them and the SNP policy to scrap six-month sentences.

"Communities across Scotland deserve protection and respite from such violent offenders. Labour would hold firm to such individuals remaining in prison, and they deserve longer sentences."

He went on: "It also backs up Labour's commitment to opposing Kenny MacAskill's plans to scrap six-month sentences when such serious offenders are being treated so leniently.

"This is yet more evidence of soft-touch Scotland."

The justice secretary has been under fire for his plans to phase out jail sentences of six months or less for minor criminals, a measure designed to ease pressure on Scotland's jails.

As a part of his controversial Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill, Mr MacAskill wants to introduce "community payback sentences", which will see minor criminals do unpaid work under supervision, seek help for drink or drug problems, or take part in programmes to address their behaviour.

But the fact those responsible for far more serious crimes are already escaping lengthy prison sentences shocked Mr MacAskill's political rivals.

The situation was described as "farcical" by Bill Aitken, the Conservatives' justice spokesman.

He said: "Even on the basis of their own figures, the Scottish Government plans to scrap six-month sentences are shown to be a dangerous nonsense.

"Those who find themselves convicted of a serious assault, sometimes with a sexual aspect to it, must expect long custodial sentences.

"If the SNP passes its law to scrap sentences of six months or less, then Scotland will become a much more dangerous place.

"The Scottish Government comes out with the old canard that people aren't being properly punished because they spend only a couple of weeks in jail. But this is because Kenny MacAskill's policy is to let so many of them out after just serving a quarter of their sentence.

"This means that six months in many cases means six weeks. The situation is farcical."

The new figures piled more pressure on the justice secretary, who is being portrayed by opponents as a lame-duck minister. His decision to go to Burns Supper in Canada rather than attend a knife-crime summit in Holyrood earlier this year led to an outcry.

And a number of high-profile incidents of dangerous criminals absconding from Castle Huntly open jail in Perthshire raised more questions about Mr MacAskill's handling of the justice portfolio.

The 2007-8 figures showed that 39 sex offenders were sentenced to six months or less. Of those, ten were convicted of indecent assault and 11 for "lewd and indecent" behaviour.

A total of 625 house-breakers got six months or less, as did 19 fire-raisers, 648 people found guilty of handling an offensive weapon and 1,815 who had committed common assault.

The number of people receiving sentences of six months or less were similar to the previous couple of years – for example, in 2006-7, there were 72 people convicted of serious assault let out within six months against 63 in 2005-6.

David Sinclair, of Victim Support Scotland, said: "We would very much like to see the stories behind these statistics. We have always taken the view that prison is the place for people who commit serious offences.

"We would like to know what types of robberies are being committed by those who were given six-month sentences and exactly what types of offences are being committed.

"You have to know the circumstances of each particular case before coming to a judgment," Mr Sinclair added.

"But if you believe in the criminal justice system, you hope that the courts are taking into account all factors, including the views of the victims of the crime. There appears to be little variation in the figures over the years. Some years they are slightly down and other years they are slightly up."

Mr Sinclair went on: "We recognise that there is a period of change at the moment. Everyone is waiting to see what the results of these changes will be when they are rolled out.

"We have said that we will co-operate with the changes, because we don't take the Luddite view that we must build more prisons to lock more people up. Locking people up for minor crimes is not the answer."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "These statistics show that the vast majority of those convicted of serious crimes are sent to jail for longer than six months.

"It is untrue to say sentences of six months or less are being abolished – we want to introduce a presumption against those short sentences and sheriffs will always make the final decision based on all the information before them.

"While prison will always remain the right place for serious and dangerous offenders, this shows that short sentences for low-level offenders do nothing to stop reoffending – three-quarters of those sentenced to short-term sentences of six months or less reoffend within two years, while 42 per cent of those sentenced to community service have a clean record after that time."