The chief inspector of Scottish prisons has called for an end to prison sentences of less than a year whenever possible.
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, David Strang, made the comments on Sunday in an interview with BBC's Good Morning Scotland.
He believes there should be a presumption against one-year sentences, as is currently the case with three-month jail terms, and pointed to evidence from reoffending rates.
Mr Strang said: "I think we're sending too many people to prison for short sentences. The evidence is very clear that if you want to reduce crime then you don't send people to prison for a short time.
"People who are released from a short sentence of less than 12 months, over half of them are reconvicted within one year.
"So I would have thought that one purpose of the criminal justice system is to prevent future crimes, to reduce reoffending, and the evidence is very clear, that if you send someone to prison then the damage that that does leads to them reoffending more than if you had given them an alternative sentence by the court."
Mr Strang instead called for more fines or community payback orders so offenders could be "repairing some of the damage they've done".
He added that although financial savings are not the main benefit of alternative sentences, keeping someone in prison for a year costs between £30,000 and £40,000.
Mr Strang was appointed to the role in 2013 and is responsible for the inspection of the 16 prisons in the country.
In 2010, a presumption against sentences of less than three months was introduced.
It aimed to make the court only pass a jail term of such length or less if no other appropriate action is available.
However, the use of short-term sentences has remained relatively constant in the years since 2010.
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