Summary

The article describes plans for development of the long-term prison system in Scotland. While building on the traditions of the Scottish Prison Service and on the developments which are already under way, the new approach represents a significant change in both the quality and shape of the prison system. Any such developments must commence with a review of the purpose of imprisonment. The basis of the new strategy is the view of a prisoner as a person who is responsible for his actions and who should be encouraged to accept his responsibilities by providing him with a range of opportunities for personal development. An important element of the strategy is to seek to lessen the harmful effects of removal of prisoners from normal life. Steps will be taken to improve the prisoners’ basic quality of life and to promote opportunities for the preservation of prisoners’ self-esteem and self-respect, particularly by improving arrangements for access to family and by enabling prisoners to exercise a degree of responsible choice over how they plan their sentence.
The recent history of the Scottish prison service suggests that the balance between security, order, regime and progression needs to be reviewed. Prisoners should be held in custody using only the minimum degree of security necessary for the protection of the public. Revision of the classification system would need to be accompanied by a review of the roles of existing closed long-term prisons. Thereby, substantial progress can be made towards minimising the detrimental effects of the removal of prisoners from normal life and creating an environment where most prisoners will be committed to the completion of their sentence in a positive fashion. This strategy represents a significant change which will take a number of years to implement and needs to be carried forward at a pace which both staff and prisoners can accommodate. The principles underlying the approach to the long-term prison system would be applied in due course across the prison system a whole.