THE SNP yesterday promised to reopen a controversial tough boot camp for Scotland’s worst young offenders if they win power in next year’s Holyrood elections, writes Steve Bargeton, political editor.

Ministers closed down the Airborne Initiative two years ago after a public outcry following a fly-on-the wall documentary which showed youngsters swearing, taking drugs and behaving violently.

The Executive withdrew the scheme’s £600,000 funding arguing that it was not value for money. The project, based in Lanarkshire, opened in 1994 to provide residential courses for repeat offenders aged 18 to 25 but closed in 2004 with the loss of 26 jobs.

But yesterday the SNP said it was cheaper than prison.

Justice spokesman Kenny MacAskill said that when the scheme closed down in 2004 it cost £574 a week to keep someone in prison, compared to £116 a week for a place on the Airborne Initiative.

He said the re-offending rate for youngsters who took part in the nine-week long programme of education, hard physical work and tough discipline was 21%, compared to 79% for prison.

“Airborne is a last-chance saloon, it does work and it does so in a cost-effective manner that’s been proven,” said Mr MacAskill who described those on the scheme as “mini-crime waves”.

“An SNP administration will immediately take steps to restore the Airborne initiative. Airborne was effective and it was also substantially cheaper than prison.

“There was the furore over the television programme.

“Rather than be prepared to accept that that was the reality of the problem we were dealing with, Labour and the Lib Dems shamefully pulled the funding.

“We are not talking about choirboys and therefore if any television programme showed people who had serious problems in education, language, drink and drug dependency, rather than be shocked, we should accept that’s the reality of what they were trying to deal with.”

Mr MacAskill also claimed the Executive had failed to keep its promises to use the funding for other alternative projects, “We were told that there would be a replacement programme but so far nothing is up and running.”