Number of prisoners on home release drops following introduction of stricter rules

New rules governing home detention curfews were outlined in October after the killing of Paisley man Craig McClelland.

Chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), Colin McConnell, told Holyrood that the new rules had cut the number of prisoners granted home release from 30 per week to seven.

James Wright was unlawfully at large, having breached his home release curfew five months earlier, when he murdered Mr McClelland.

Following a review of the scheme in the wake of that case, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has announced “additional safeguards”, among them extra exclusions preventing prisoners being considered for home detention curfew.

There is now a presumption against releasing people who have been involved in acts of violence.

Mr McConnell said: “In terms of the situation now, there is a considerable restriction and presumption against the grant of HDC, which has resulted in, since these new measures were introduced, approaching a 75 per cent reduction.

“Where at one time we may well have been between 25 and 30 grants of HDC per week, we’re now down to seven.”

He also said prison governors should “take a broad look at someone’s offending history”.

He said: “I think if there’s any indication that certainly if somebody has used a weapon or an implement against another person, but any sort of indication of meaningful serious violence, almost no matter how far back that is, my encouragement to governors is to be cautious.

“The presumption would be, with somebody with a back-story like that, I would be reluctant to grant them HDC. And that’s the guidance I’m giving to governors.”

In response to the question whether this could hold back prisoner rehabilitation, he said: “I think, over time, if we have a mature discussion about that in the light of experience, it might well be that a different consideration might well emerge. But I think that will be based on experience and mature discussion.

“It might well be that the view forms that my approach and SPS’s approach currently is far too narrow, too conservative - with a small c - in that sense.

“But at the moment I think our approach is reasonable, and probably necessary, in order that we can establish some confidence going forward in the HDC decision-making process.”