Report to the People
31st March 2008
Open to Criticism
Proper
opposition is all about being constructive.
As well as condemning Ministers in strong terms when they get it wrong,
it is important to praise them if they get it right.
And
the Justice Minister was absolutely right when, last week, he apologised to the
schoolgirl who was raped by an attempted murderer after he’d walked out of an
open prison.
Although
he had attempted to murder a policeman, although he had previously absconded,
although there was a “high risk” of him re-offending, the rapist was somehow
serving his sentence in an open jail.
Open
prisons do have a place in the penal system.
They can help long-term offenders who have done their time and who now
pose no threat to the community adjust to life on the other side of the wall.
They are not for dangerous serial offenders half way through a ten-year
stretch for attempted murder.
Even
now, there are no guarantees that prisoners who escape from an open prison
won’t just be sent back to one.
At
the heart of the current review of prisons policy, which is due to report in the
summer, must be public protection, not saving money.
But, with SNP and Liberal Democrat MSPs joining forces on Thursday to
force through changes which will let even more serious prisoners out onto the
streets even earlier, I suspect the government disagrees.
If
they continue down this road, I fear that last week’s apology may well be the
first of many.
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