Alternatives to jail needed - governor

A prison governor last night urged that "alternatives in the community" must be considered instead of jail.

Bill McKinlay, governor of Barlinnie Prison said sentences in the community were not a "soft option".

In an STV interview he said: "We are trying to convince the public that, in actual fact, it's are harder for those that commit offences than incarceration because they have to be responsible and can pay back to the community and relapse is not really an acceptable thing for most of the public.

"We should be continually trying to engage them in the community because they are coming back into the community."

Mr McKinlay, who has spent 40 years in the prison service, said it cost about 25,000 per prisoner place at the jail where he works on the outskirts of Glasgow.

l Plans to make prisoners pay reparations to their victims out of their wages could be adopted in Scotland if it proves successful south of the Border.

UK government officials are exploring ways of making deductions from inmates' wages and a proposal is expected to be announced at the Conservative Party conference, in Birmingham, next week.