Automatic early release curbs pass stage 3

The bill to end automatic early release as it applies to long term prisoners passed its final stage in the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

MSPs voted by 67 votes to nil, with 46 abstentions (Liberal Democrat, Green and independent MSPs supported the bill but most Labour and Conservative members abstained), to pass the Prisoners (Control of Release) (Scotland) Bill at stage 3. Under the bill, prisoners serving more than four years will no longer be eligible for automatic release after two thirds of their sentence. Prisoners will now be allowed out on licence six months before the end of their sentence, unless the Parole Board for Scotland grants an application for earlier release. Prisoners given an extended sentence will not be allowed the six-month concession.

For all prisoners, release arrangements will be improved by allowing release dates to be brought forward by one or two days if there is a need to ensure immediate access to support services in communities to help break the cycle of offending behaviour.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson told the Parliament that the bill had been improved at stage 2 in response to the views of the Justice Committee, to ensure that supervision would be in place for each long-term prisoner leaving custody. However Labour claimed the bill lacked flexibility or an evidence base for its approach, and the Conservatives complained that it simply replaced one automatic release point with another.

After the vote Mr Matheson said: “Scottish Prison Service has an excellent track record in working to ensure prisoners being released into the community are prepared over a considerable period of time. The interventions and prisoner programmes carried out inside prisons help prisoners change their behaviour and prepare for eventual release, and this work starts a long time before a prisoner may be released into the community.

“Today’s decision means that long-term prisoners who pose an unacceptable risk to public safety will now serve their entire sentence in custody, and is a huge step in the right direction to end the system we inherited."