Prison sentences - 'Automatic early release is a scandal'

It is difficult to find anyone who thinks it is right that thousands of criminals get automatic early release from Scottish prisons every year.

And yet perverts like Richard Bargon continue to get out after serving just half the sentences handed to them by the courts.

As we report today, pensioner Bargon was released after spending just four-and-a-half months in prison for two sex attacks within days of one another on Leith Walk.

One victim, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, was dragged into an alleyway. At the time of Bargon's sentencing she told the News that she was now too scared to leave home alone.

How will she feel now that Bargon is free to walk the streets after less than 20 weeks inside? And how should any of us feel that most such criminals are set loose early if their sentence was less than four years?

The scandal of automatic early release is rightly a key issue in the Scottish election campaign which ends on May 5. Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories have pledged to end it, while the SNP have promised a review if they are returned.

But, then again, it was the Tories who introduced it in 1993. And Labour and the Lib Dems didn't scrap it when they were in power. Most damning, the SNP failed to end it despite a clear pledge to do so in 2007.

Of course the high cost of running prisons is the reason. But the public demands to be protected from the likes of Bargon for every minute that judges deem necessary. We expect politicians to deliver that, not talk tough then break their promises.

A stain on the city

anyone who uses Edinburgh's public toilets - and it seems only a minority of us do - knows that many are, quite literally, a stain on the city's reputation.

Indeed, if the council wants to know why a survey showed only one in three locals use public loos, a quick inspection of some of the poor facilities on offer will give the answer.

To be fair, the local authority knows there is a problem and that is one reason why it is looking to halve the number of toilets to just 15.

But the plan to scrub up the facilities will only work if there is a simultaneous investment - not the 400,000 cut being proposed.

The council is deluded if it thinks local businesses will step in to fill the gap, which is why it is curious that it is so steadfastly refusing to consider charging for public toilet use.

A small fee, of say 10p or 20p - with exceptions, if possible, for the elderly and mums-to-be - would seem a reasonable price to most of us to use a clean, safe facility when caught short.