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The annual report on the state of Scottish prisons was published today by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons. The report presents an overall view of Scotland's prisons as well as a summary of inspections conducted during the year.

Welcoming the broadly positive tone of the report, Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill said:

"I agree with Brigadier Monro that our prison service is one to be proud of and I value its work in dealing with often very violent and dangerous offenders to keep our communities safe.

"Crime is going down in this country and is now at its lowest level for 35 years. Yet we also have the second highest incarceration rate in Western Europe - more than double that of Denmark, Finland, Norway or Sweden and around 50 per cent more than Ireland.

"In the face of unprecedented Westminster cuts to the Scottish budget, it makes no sense to keep packing more and more low level prisoners into our jails. Instead of giving free bed and board to less serious offenders, prison should be used to keep dangerous criminals off our streets for longer.

"More needs to be done to tackle the rising prisoner population, much of which is driven by the large number of low level offenders being given short custodial sentences. The evidence underlines just how ineffective this approach has been - 73 per cent of offenders who serve a short prison sentence are reconvicted within two years compared with just 38 per cent of those who receive tough community sentences.

"Clearly there is a better way, and that's why we have taken steps to replace the discredited 'revolving door' system with tough and effective community penalties for low level offenders, that can both address the underlying causes of their offending and force them to repay their debt to society through hard work in the community.

"An area where I want to see progress is in dealing with the worrying rise in the female prisoner population and Dame Elish Angiolini and her Commission on Female Offenders will report early next year with recommendations.

"I welcome the Brigadier's views on the importance of managing sex offenders. Indeed Scotland is one of the leading countries in the world in our approach to the management of sex offenders and even more is being done to protect the public than ever before. The multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) have strengthened how police and other criminal justice agencies, including the Scottish Prison Service, work together to access, manage and minimise the risks posed by sex offenders and we will continue to look at ways of improving the system.

"That is why I recently announced the national roll out of a successful pilot scheme which ensures that parents are entitled to know if a sex offender has access to their children. Under the scheme, parents, carers or guardians will be able to formally register their concerns and will be informed if the named individual has a conviction for sex offences against children.

"Prison should be for punishing serious offenders and keeping the public safe. We are continuing to invest in improving the prison estate and delivering two new prisons - HMP Low Moss and HMP Grampian - alongside the ongoing redevelopment of HMP Shotts."

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