TWO prisoners who were released early under emergency Covid-19 laws have re-offended, Scotland’s most senior police officer has confirmed.
Up to 400 low-risk inmates were eligible to be released early in a bid to allow prisons to put social distancing measures in place during the lockdown.
The early release rule did not apply to those convicted of terror or sexual offences from early release, as well as anyone posing a threat to an identified person. Prison wardens are albe to veto any decision.
READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland: Prison governors to have final say over early releases
Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, said that re-offending rates of those released early had been “very, very low” with authorities only aware of two out of the almost 300 people released who have offended.
Earlier this week, Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham - the leader of Police Scotland's response to Covid-19 - said early release had not been "wholly without incident".
Mr Livingstone said: "As of yesterday, we think there is almost 300 people who have been released back into the community and actually there has only been, as of yesterday, two individuals who have come to our notice for reoffending."
Mr Livingstone added the release of prisoners was "not without risk".
He added: "We've been working very closely with the Scottish Prison Service, very closely with the third sector and other agencies in the community that provide support for people and their families when they're released from prisons."
READ MORE: Coronavirus: One in four want police to be tougher over lockdown
He said the initiative to release the prisoners had been subject to "rigorous debate and preparation".
He added: "The Cabinet Secretary for Justice made it very clear that it wouldn't include people convicted of sexual offences, it wouldn't include people with a history of domestic abuse and there would be risk assessments made against each and every individual who has been released.
"The reason for that was for the public health imperative that existed."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel