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Scotland’s Justice Secretary sparked fury after refusing to rule out the early release of Scotland’s most serious criminals to ease jail overcrowding. Angela Constance yesterday failed to preclude freeing prisoners serving long-term sentences of four years or more. It's led to fears about the impact on victims if murderers and other serious offenders will be released early. The Minister also faced criticism for stating the government could not 'build their way out of this' by creating new prisons to accomodate soaring numbers of inmates. Debbie Adams, director of development and external affairs at Victim Support Scotland, said: ‘The release of prisoners serving longer sentences would mean that those convicted of murder, rape and other serious sexual and violent offences might be let out of prison early, causing serious distress for victims and wider communities. ‘The latest Scottish Crime and Justice Survey revealed rapidly decreasing levels of confidence in the criminal justice system, and this is not being improved by repeated early release schemes. With Scotland’s prison population at an all-time high, we recognise that something must be done to address overcrowding on a fundamental level. However, releasing long-term prisoners is absolutely not the answer.’ Earlier this month, Ms Constance announced that 440 prisoners serving sentences of less than four years will be released in three tranches over next month and December in response to concerns about overcrowding, and then a further 100 per month between January and April. It followed two previous schemes which saw 790 criminals let out early. Those serving sentences for sexual offences or domestic abuse were excluded from the early release process. During an interview on BBC Good Morning Scotland yesterday, Ms Constance was asked if she will reconsider the SNP Government’s previous decision to scrap automatic early release for long-term prisoners. She said: ‘There will always be a place for prisons - prisons must accommodate those who pose the greatest risk – and because of the success of police and prosecutors we are indeed seeing more long-term prisoners come into our establishments.’ Pressed on whether she will look at the possibility of automatic early release for longer-term prisoners, she said: ‘In terms of how long-term prisoners progress through their sentence, I await the findings of the Sentencing and Penal Commission, which will report this year. ‘But if we can reduce the prison population we can therefore do more work with those who present a greater risk to prepare them for release should decisions of that nature be made at the Parole Board.’ The Justice Secretary previously said that emergency powers to release inmates would only be used ‘in extremis’ when an emergency threatens the safety and wellbeing of staff and prisoners, such as when there is a major fire. In her latest interview, Ms Constance also claimed that ‘we can’t build our way out of this’ when pushed on the need for new prisons, saying there is not one cause to the problem and neither one solution. Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘The public will be rightly alarmed that Angela Constance hasn’t ruled out the release of long-term prisoners to counter record custody numbers despite the clear risks this would pose to public safety. ‘Law-abiding Scots deserve better than this chaos. It’s time the SNP finally prioritised delivering the long overdue new prisons in Glasgow and the Highlands rather than continually throwing open the prison doors at every turn.’ Sara Snell, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, said: ‘We see the further planned early release in November as necessary to reduce the immediate pressure in Scottish prisons today, but it does not address any of the root causes of the problems.’ Her comments came in the wake of Scottish Prison Service chief executive Teresa Medhurst warning that levels of overcrowding now meant there are ‘very serious concerns around our ability to keep people safe and secure.
