SNP launches plan to free 4000 Scottish prisoners

by Dave Keating | July 2, 2008 at 12:29 am

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The Scottish National Party, the party calling for Scottish Independence which has recently won control of the Scottish parliament, has unveiled a new plan to release half of Scotlands prisoners, newspapers are reporting.

RADICAL plans to cut Scotland's 8000-strong prison population by almost half were unveiled by the SNP yesterday.

The proposals would do away with prison sentences of six months or less for all but a handful of offenders.

And fewer people would be locked up on remand as they awaited trial or sentence.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said he was committed to the plan to cut prison numbers by up to 4000. It was proposed by a top level prisons commission chaired by former First Minister Henry McLeish.

But opposition parties were enraged by scheme.

Scottish Labour's justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said: "The SNP government need to admit that emptying prisons overnight is not the answer.

"This is the real face of the SNP-soft on crime.

"Cutting the prison population by 4000 is an outrageous idea."