MacAskill urged to scrap prison visit plans

Published on 02/02/2012 00:27

JUSTICE secretary Kenny MacAskill is facing calls to abandon plans to scrap the role of prison visiting committees.

The Scottish Government is considering replacing them with an advocacy service, run by a government department, for reasons of “effectiveness”.

The proposal has led to concerns that no independent body would be checking what takes place inside Scottish jails.

Mr MacAskill told MSPs before Christmas that he would reflect on opposition to the plans.

The future of the prison visiting committees is to be debated in the Scottish Parliament today.

Jenny Marra MSP, Scottish Labour’s spokeswoman for community safety and legal affairs, said: “What Kenny MacAskill is proposing does not perform the function of visiting committees – he is not replacing like with like.

“An advocacy service won by a company bidding for a government contract will never be able to perform the impartial scrutiny carried out by volunteers on the visiting committee, who offer their time to do spot checks on prison conditions.

“Kenny MacAskill’s prime motivation here seems to be to reduce the number of public bodies.

“This is not a good enough reason to take away independent prison monitoring that has been seen as essential in law since Victorian times. This is a regressive proposal.

“With 59 of the 60 organisations consulted, and the Howard League for Penal Reform, agreeing that the SNP government is taking the wrong approach, I hope the SNP government will listen to the powerful case made against these proposals and drop these plans.”

Scottish Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have also voiced concerns about the proposed changes.

However, Mr MacAskill told the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee last year that a consultation on their future “did not produce decisive evidence in favour of keeping the structures”.