BUILDING THREE new prisons in Scotland may not be enough to accommodate the rising number of criminals being sent to jail, writes Steve Bargeton, political editor.

The Scottish prison population—already one of the highest in western Europe—has increased by 20% over the last six years reaching a record high of 7700 last month.

With courts handing down stiff custodial sentences the numbers are expected to increase by around 1500 over the next five years.

To ease overcrowding which many predict will inevitably lead to serious unrest in many of Scotland’s 14 prisons, ministers have spent £300 million improving conditions and have given the go-ahead for three new prisons.

But in a report out today the watchdog Audit Scotland warned that this may not be enough to deal with chronic overcrowding.

“Significant amounts of money have been spent improving the conditions inside Scotland’s prisons, but more than one in five prisoners are still sharing cells designed for one person,” said Auditor General for Scotland Robert Black.

“With the current projections indicating that the prison population could rise as much by 2016 as it has done since 2001, it will be important to improve access to programmes that help to reduce re-offending as well as ensuring an adequate number of prison places.”

Since 2000-01, the use of community sentences has gone up by more than a half and spending has increased significantly.

“However, their use may still be restricted by availability of places and delays in starting community sentences, and more research is needed on their effectiveness,” said the report.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said that many of the problems raised by the Audit Scotland report are being addressed.

“But we cannot progress as quickly on this agenda as I would like until we tackle the problems of prison overcrowding,” he said.

“I have always believed that prison should be for serious and dangerous offenders, which is why we are building three new prisons and committing record investment to our prison estate.

“However we can’t just build our way out of the problem. For every prison being built it means one less hospital or school for our communities.”

Mr MacAskill said he wants to put in place a “mix of tough community penalties for less serious offenders and prison for dangerous and violent criminals.”

He said, “Our action plan to revitalise community penalties is being taken forward as a matter of urgency.”

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said, “Many will find it astonishing that there has been this financial outlay and not one additional prison place has been created, albeit that prisoners are now being kept in greater comfort.”

Scottish Lib Dem justice spokesman Margaret Smith said, “This report is concrete proof that the current trend of packing offenders off to jail is not working.

“Our prisons are groaning at the seams and re-offending rates are on the increase.

“There needs to be an overhaul of sentencing policy, along with a greater focus on targeting the root cause of crime to cut offending and re-offending rates.”