Charities and community organisations should do more to rehabilitate offenders who may not trust the police or the state, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has said.
She said many ex-offenders prefer services that have not been “branded by the state” because of the “privacy and the acceptance that involves”.
She was speaking as she visited Hamilton Academical’s New Douglas Park stadium to learn about the work the club does to provide meaningful activity to ex-offenders.
.@hamiltonaccies security mistakes #Tory press chief @AdamMorrisEdin for @ScottishResist activist Sean Clerkin @PA pic.twitter.com/upQ9O2t6tg
— Mark McLaughlin (@mark_mclaughlin) April 14, 2016
Ms Davidson’s visit was interrupted by Scottish Resistance activist Sean Clerkin, who sneaked into the stadium posing as a journalist and tore up a photocopy of the Tory manifesto on the park.
A member of the ground staff mistook the Scottish Conservative head of press for an activist and escorted him from the park, before realising his mistake and confronting Mr Clerkin.
Ms Davidson told the Press Association: “Hamilton Accies is a beacon in the area.
“As well as work with children with autism and with deaf people, it also does work with prisoners and ex-offenders.
“We have got a commitment in our manifesto to look at ways that we can encourage the third and charitable sector to be involved in rehab, both before prisoners leave prison and after they are let out to make sure that they are involved in meaningful activity and don’t go back to a life of crime.
“We think that there is work there that can be done by people outside of government, by community groups, by third sector organisations that can perhaps have some government grant aid to support the work that they do.
“A lot of people who have been involved in addiction services or criminal activity don’t like accessing services that look like they’re branded by the state.
“They prefer going to something that is a local, community-based project because of the privacy and the acceptance that involves is somehow different from the state, the police and all of these other areas.”
During her visit, Ms Davidson met orphan Jasmine Noon, eight, who has received help and support from the club since she lost both her parents.
The Tory leader said: “It’s greatly to the Accies’ credit that they spend so much time with community groups.
“They spend time with addiction groups, work groups, pensioners groups, they have a men’s shed, and they also work with young people from difficult backgrounds.”
Ms Davidson also accused the SNP of “arrogance”.
She added “They’ve not had the strong opposition that they need, which can hold them to account.
“I don’t think for one second that the SNP fears the Scottish Labour Party, and hasn’t done for years.
“I would like a big team of MSPs that have all sort of expertise and experience from outside the parliament who can come in and raise the level of debate and scrutiny in order to make sure that we have a government that knows that it can’t be so laissez-fair.
“We have passed bad laws over the last five years, like named person and offensive behaviour at football.
“With us as the main opposition we can put a lot more pressure on the Scottish Government to take its role more seriously.”