Leaders: Cornton Vale demolition job was long overdue

IT was repeated so often that it became a cliché, but the idea that politicians should be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”, coined by New Labour, contained an essential truth. For without looking at the root causes of criminal behaviour, society cannot hope to reduce criminality which plagues modern society.

Nowhere is this principle better illustrated than by the case of women offenders in Scotland, a subject which has been investigated by a commission led by former Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini, and which published a comprehensive and compelling report yesterday recommending, among other things, that Scotland’s only all-female jail, Cornton Vale, should be demolished.

It is a radical but long-overdue proposal justified by the facts which the commission uncovered. The number of women in the prison has more than doubled over the past decade, although 75 per cent of custodial sentences are for six months or less. Women prisoners are a lower risk to public safety, are likely to be in prison for dishonesty offences and have higher rates of mental health and drug problems than men.

There are, of course, women who commit serious crimes and they should be appropriately punished, but many female prisoners in this overcrowded, out-of-date institution should not be behind bars at all, particularly as the consequence of imprisonment is often that they lose their welfare benefits or their council home, or their contact with their families, or possibly all of that.

The commission sets out a wide range of solutions to this problem but among the most obvious, and most welcome, was the call for Cornton Vale to be replaced with a smaller specialist prison for long-term and high-risk prisoners, with regional units to hold short-term and remand prisoners.

Other recommendations such as providing additional powers for procurators-fiscal to impose composite diversion orders, combining unpaid work and a rehabilitative programme as an alternative to prosecution, have the mark of common sense.

Unveiling her report yesterday, Dame Elish, who should be commended for her work, made a passionate plea for society to get better at tackling the problems of women who have repeatedly committed lower-level offences. Perhaps echoing New Labour, she said we need to get better at tackling the root cause of their problems in the community, and allow the community to benefit from punishments imposed. Her proposals go a long way towards achieving that.

Speaking when the commission was launched, justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said the situation involving women prisoners could not continue, adding he was determined to improve conditions and reduce reoffending rates. Noble sentiments, sincerely expressed. Using the Angiolini commission blueprint, Mr MacAskill must deliver on his promise. We are confident he will.

Lib Dems’ incredulous track record

In THIS space yesterday we argued that the claim made by the Liberal Democrats’ Holyrood leader, Willie Rennie – that his party had a good record in local government – would produce incredulous derision among the electors of Scotland’s capital who have borne the cost of the ill-fated trams project presided over by his party.

When they read that the Lib-Dem manifesto for the council elections, unveiled yesterday, pledges to extend the tram line further than York Place and investigate building a second line out to Little France, voters will be beyond incredulity.

There was an economic case for the original plans for the first line to go down Leith Walk, so reviving that idea is, in theory, sensible. A line out to the science quarter and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary also makes sense to provide high-quality transport link to Edinburgh airport, as the Lib Dem leader of the city council argued yesterday.

However, what Jenny Dawe and her colleagues have clearly overlooked, or were too arrogant to consider, is that voters in Edinburgh blame the Lib Dems – who have been the lead party in coalition with the SNP for the last five years – for the complete fiasco, the cost over-runs, delays, roadworks chaos and embarrassment this project has brought.

Launching the Lib-Dem campaign, Mr Rennie said his party had a track record of delivering for local communities across Scotland. In Edinburgh, its track record is of an entirely different hue. Even some of the few tracks that are in place had to be pulled up and replaced. A more comprehensive and damaging failure to correctly gauge the public’s mood is hard to imagine.