Justice debate: More prisons needed if all knife criminals jailed - MacAskill

Published on Monday 14 March 2011 17:05

Opposition plans to jail all knife criminals would result in fewer police on the streets and cuts to schools and hospitals, justice secretary Kenny MacAskill has warned.

"You can be as macho and tough as you like," he said of the Labour and Tory policies on knife crime during a Scotland on Sunday debate on law and order yesterday. "You can lock up as many young laddies for this, that and the next thing and talk tough, but let's remember it comes at a cost.

"Every prison costs upwards of 120 million, every prisoner costs you 40,000 per annum. They're going to have to build two prisons, four prisons, six prisons to deal with mandatory sentences.

"Where's it going to come from? It will be less bobbies on the beat and we won't be building the homes, the hospitals and the schools that we require in our communities."

Labour wants to jail all knife offenders for six months, while the Tories would do so for two years. Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Robert Brown said the Labour plans alone would add 1,300 to the prison population. "That's the equivalent of another Barlinnie - where are you going to get the money from?" he asked.

The Scottish Government's controversial move to phase out jail sentences of three months or less came under fire at the debate.

Tory Bill Aitken rounded on the proposals, which were introduced by the SNP administration with Liberal Democrat support.

"Which offender do you think should not go to jail out of the following?" Mr Aitken asked the justice secretary. "The wife beater, the drunk driver driving while disqualified with two previous convictions, the shoplifter with 40 previous convictions and the minor drug pusher?

"All of these are cases in which a sentence of three months or less might frequently be imposed."

But Mr MacAskill said that the ultimate decision over sentencing lay with individual sheriffs and the government had only introduced a presumption.

Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker also criticised the SNP government and said about 7,000 offenders who would otherwise face jail would now be spared this on an "arbitrary basis".