Prison Reform

Prison populations can go down: the sky won’t fall in, and governments don’t necessarily topple either. Like in the Netherlands, crime has dropped in Scotland and the UK. Politicians must be brave, rejecting what experts call penal populism: politicians implementing harsh policies that they think the public will like rather than following the evidence that harsh sentences solve little and perpetuate social problems. In Scotland, we also need to be bold. There are legitimate concerns about early release from victims’ groups that need to be addressed. Reform also needs to be wider than just our prisons. It includes the courts, NHS mental health services, social work and other related services.