MacAskill should have seen system was going awry for a long time

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 23:04

PROFESSOR Spencer is to be congratulated on a seminal report, full of refreshing common sense, also rushed out in double quick time.

In the process he may have bought some much needed time for the embattled justice secretary, but in the longer term, assuming his recommendations are acted upon, he has started the delicate process of recreating some confidence in the open prisons.

Establishments such as Castle Huntly and Noranside never really have been suitable for short-term offenders – they exist only to make the public safer in the longer term, by preparing serious offenders for final release onto our streets. Over the past decade, prison bosses such as former chief executive Tony Cameron and his area directors have gradually lost sight of this fundamental purpose, as they experimented to get more value from the small number of uniformed staff involved in running what essentially is a halfway house.

Under huge pressure from civil servants and politicians to save money, despite more and more offenders being locked away by the courts, they even took the daft decision to give one governor the responsibility of running both establishments, despite being many miles apart.

They also underestimated the scale of the damage to public confidence as things began to fray. Matters were probably compounded by closed prisons not carrying out thorough enough risk assessments before sending prisoners to the open estate.

Kenny MacAskill's mistake was to inherit this situation and to continue to trust his staff to get the detail right. An unforgiving public, however, will not forget and despite the Spencer report, almost certainly he is toast if there is another high-profile escape.

Doubtless there will be some who say other heads should roll. My view is that it is too late for this and therefore pointless. But all the same, a few wicker baskets, strategically placed in St Andrews House and Scottish Prison Service headquarters , might yet do some good.

&#149 Clive Fairweather is a former chief inspector of prisons