Almost one in three of Scotland's female prisoners in jail for shoplifting

The figures, obtained by this newspaper, have prompted an admission by the Scottish Executive that its eight-year attempt to cut numbers at suicide-hit Cornton Vale prison has failed.

When the Labour party swept to power in 1997, the then Scottish Office acknowledged that too many women were being jailed and it was a factor in the spate of suicides to hit the overcrowded Cornton Vale.

When Labour came into office, the average daily prison population was 186, and by the time the Executive took control of Scottish affairs, it had risen to 210. It now stands at more than 330.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal that in 2004-05, of the 714 women sent to jail, 213 were convicted of shoplifting while just 68 were guilty of crimes of violence.

A senior spokesman for the justice minister, Cathy Jamieson, acknowledged that "the huge increase" in the female prison population outstripped the general increase.

He added: "We haven't managed to make the impact we intended over a number of years. It's a source of continuing concern to the minister."

Of 9,585 men jailed by the courts in 2004-05, 1,154 were imprisoned for shoplifting - a massive figure, but just 12% compared with the staggering total of 30% for all women jailed.

The shoplifting figures are concealed in the Executive statistics and have been lumped under a general heading of "other crimes of dishonesty", but statisticians agreed to extract the data in response to our request.

It is almost universally agreed that the vast majority of women jailed in Scotland should not be in prison.

Justice ministers from Henry McLeish onwards have commented on the issue and expressed a desire to alter the situation, but each in turn has failed.

Jamieson's spokesman said ministers could not tell judges and sheriffs what to do.

He added: "We need to make sure there are robust alternatives to custody in place and encourage the judiciary to make use of them. There are signs that confidence in these alternatives is growing and we expect to see them have the desired impact over the next few years."

A report published recently by Dr Andrew McLellan, chief inspector of prisons, found that 98% of women at Cornton Vale, Scotland's only all-female prison, had problems with drug addiction. Some 80% had mental health problems and 75% had been victims of abuse.

Kay Gilchrist, the chaplain at the jail, said: "One issue that I don't think is widely acknowledged is that the vast majority of the women in the jail have been sexually abused as children.

"There is a classic pattern of abuse, or at least neglect, then a tendency to use alcohol and drugs from a young age to blot out the misery of their childhood. Then there is a dependency on the substances, and that leads them into crime.

"I always feel that if they had the support they needed from counsellors and mental health workers they would not be where they are.

"I do believe everybody has a choice, so I'm not absolving prisoners of responsibility for their actions, but choices are not always easy to make if you don't have the right support network around you."

She said that many women had cracked under the strain of a dire family life. "I saw a young woman in here this week who hadn't taken drugs until she was 22. Her youth had been spent nursing her mother through breast cancer, caring for a little sister, and then she became pregnant and had a stillbirth."

Kenny McAskill, the SNP justice spokesman, said: "There's very little debate on this issue. Most of the women in Cornton Vale need pity rather than punishment.

"You could probably let them all out over the weekend and Scotland would not be any less safe than it was when they were locked up."