By David Clegg

NEW GUIDELINES allowing sheriffs to hand out tougher sentences to convicts who abscond from open prisons have reduced the number of escapees from Tayside’s two open prisons.

Since December the maximum sentence that can be imposed is 12 months’ imprisonment, as opposed to just three months before then.

And it emerged yesterday the number of fugitives going on the run has almost halved since the change was implemented.

Between December 2006 and May last year 35 prisoners escaped Castle Huntly near Dundee and Noranside in Angus.

Over the equivalent period to May this year that figure fell to 19.

Last year 71 inmates absconded from the enlarged Castle Huntly compared with 36 in 2005, including murderers, drug dealers and violent thieves.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis became the first to use the increased powers when he sentenced Kenneth Hendry on December 17 in Perth Sheriff Court.

Hendry (23), who had admitted absconding from the Longforgan jail on November 1, had six months added to his sentence.

At the time Sheriff Foulis said, “In light of the regular appearances in this court of persons absconding from Castle Huntly it seems to me appropriate to make use of this increase in sentence.”

The issue of absconding from Castle Huntly hit the headlines last year following the case of Robert Foye, who raped a schoolgirl while on the run.

Foye had previously absconded from Castle Huntly in 2005 before being returned there only to disappear again.

In the aftermath of the case the Scottish Prison Service carried out a review of the running of the open estate. The policy of having one governor for both Castle Huntly and Noranside was also dropped.

Mike Inglis took up the position of governor of Castle Huntly last month.

The furore about the Foye case forced First Minister Alex Salmond to say the Scottish Prisons Commission would be looking into the open prison system.

A panel session chaired by commission member and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch is due to be held in the Marryat Hall, Dundee, on May 19 allowing members of the public to air their views.