Salmond backs open prison system after Huntly escape

Published on Tuesday 2 June 2009 22:01

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond yesterday defended open prisons and insisted that scrapping them would make Scotland less safe.

The SNP government has come under opposition attack on the issue after convicted murderer John Brown failed to return to Castle Huntly open jail near Dundee last week. A few days earlier, Brian Martin, handed himself in to the authorities after going on the run from the same jail.

Mr Salmond said: "Any abscond, even from the open estate, is a matter of concern."

But he went on: "The idea of having no open estate whatsoever I would think would be not one which could be sensibly considered, because I think it would make us less safe rather than more safe.

"The alternative to having an open estate would be to release these people, who are often institutionalised after many years behind bars, straight into the community."

"And nobody, certainly not our prison officers, certainly not people who care about security in Scotland, would think that would be a good idea."

Mr Salmond hit back at Labour attacks on the issue, saying: "I find it a bit difficult to take from Iain Gray and the Labour Party when the number of absconds were running at five times the level they are now at, and yet they are still complaining about it as if they have got amnesia about what happened when they were in office."