Reliance on imprisonment needs reviewed

SOMETHING is wrong with the Scottish criminal justice system and further proof of this, if proof were needed, came with the publication yesterday by the government of annual crime statistics.

They make uncomfortable reading for anyone who is concerned about how we, as a society, deal with crime and the consequences of crime.

According to the figures, the number of Scottish offenders sent to prison has risen to its highest level in a decade. Almost 16,900 offenders were jailed in 2008-9, 1 per cent more than the previous year, and up by a fifth in less than a decade.

There is some positive news. The overall number of convictions, at 125,400 was down 6 per cent on the previous year. Levels of homicide, rape, attempted rape, and drug possession have fallen.

But taken together, they present a picture of a system in which too many people are sent to prison and, despite claims that crime overall is falling, they do little to quell the fear of crime which is as important in people's minds as crime itself.

In their comments both the SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and Labour's Richard Baker predictably tried to paint themselves as tough on crime.

But what is required is not an exchange of pre-election soundbites, but a thorough, careful, and non-partisan consideration of what the criminal justice system which would look, in particular, at whether we rely too much on prisons as a punishment for crime.