Linda FitzGerald (Letters, August 14) recommends having ‘white collar’ criminals sentenced to community service instead of imprisonment, and deporting foreign nationals at the outset of their prison sentence.
She claims this would result in prisons no longer being overcrowded.
Leaving everything else aside, the figures don’t support her argument. Currently Scotland’s prisons have 700 more prisoners than their design capacity.
There are 749 foreign national prisoners. Of those, 340 are being held on remand and so could not be considered for deportation. That leaves 409 to be deported if we implement Ms FitzGerald’s recommendation in full.
That would still leave prisons overcrowded by 291 prisoners. Removing all ‘white collar’ criminals would still leave prisons overcrowded. The Scottish Prison Population Statistics 2024/25 issued by the Scottish Government categorise prisoners’ crimes into nine groups. Group 3 includes all crimes of dishonesty.
This ranges from housebreaking to shoplifting to fraud. In that last sub-group there are 39 prisoners. Removing those from prison would still leave prisons overcrowded by 252 prisoners.
I agree with Ms FitzGerald that community-based alternatives should be used wherever possible instead of prison, but my argument goes further than prison overcrowding. The existing prison system fails to rehabilitate prisoners.
The Scottish Government publication ‘Reconviction rates in Scotland: 2022 to 2023 Offender Cohort’ states that 26.1% of prisoners released commit a further offence within a year of being released.
The Parole Board for Scotland annual reports consistently show that life sentenced prisoners have only a one in five chance of gaining parole on their first appearance before the parole board. For community-based alternatives to work they must be considered as credible alternatives to imprisonment.
That means asking sheriffs and judges why they sentence criminals to prison rather than use community-based alternatives.
It also means ensuring there is sufficient funding to meet the increased demands on community-based services.
It could also mean educating the public in general, and victims specifically, on community-based sentences, and when they are, and are not, appropriate to use. However, rather than require that community service is automatically applied to certain categories of crime, I would leave sentencing discretion with the court.
The court is presented with all information as to the criminal’s suitability, or not, for community based sentence. This means I wouldn’t restrict community based sentences to particular crime types, such as ‘white collar’ crimes, but to anyone whom the court deems to be suitable, unless the court is prohibited from using community based sentence, such as murder, where imprisonment must be the sentence.
I don’t agree with Ms FitzGerald’s blanket proposal to deport all foreign nationals. She takes no consideration of the foreign national’s personal circumstances.
What if they have a family here? What if they were fleeing persecution in their home country?
Deportation should only be used as a last resort, where there’s a clear public benefit to having that person removed from the country.
David Logan, Milngavie.
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Deafening silence over UK's WMD
Do for this generation what was done for Scotland's emigrants
Indy route through EU membership
An independence referendum will not be allowed. However, what Westminster cannot deny the Scottish Government is an advisory referendum on joining the EU.
When that results in an overwhelming majority for joining, pressure should be brought on Westminster to help us make it happen.
If they deny us again, only then do we force an independence referendum, the voluntary union being shown to be a mirage.
Sandy Reid, Prestwick.
Nuclear power: no need to fear drought
Ni Holmes (Letters, August 18) tells us that two nuclear reactors in Romania have been closed due to low river levels, and asks - given the drought in England - which of its rivers would do the job.
Romania is almost completely landlocked, with only a relatively small area of coastline. By contrast, the UK (except for Northern Ireland) is completely surrounded by the sea.
And given the undulating nature of our coastline, the coastal areas are proportionally much greater than in most countries.
Almost all nuclear reactors in the UK are on the coast, and have no requirement to use water from rivers, so will not be affected by future droughts.
David Clark, Tarbolton.
Shetland may copy Faroes
I refer to your report ("North Sea pressure mounts on Burnham”, The Herald, August 17), and in particular to the Rosebank oil field.
Shetland needs Rosebank to be approved, for many reasons. If not it will lead to the premature shutdown of both the oil and gas plants at Sullom Voe (meaning less gas to heat homes in Scotland and the UK).
The consequences of that will lead to unemployment, lack of opportunity and eventually de-population and emigration.
Shetlanders are well aware of the success of the inhabitants of its near neighbour, Faroe Isles, which severed from Denmark after the Second World War.
Shetland may have to consider a similar separation.
Cecil Robertson (Shetlander), Inverness.
Taxpayers fund EVs
Labour has announced plans to water down its net zero targets on electric cars.
Good, but it was the Conservatives, when in office, which set impossible targets and told car manufacturers that they had to produce and sell more EVs (Electric Vehicles), or face draconian fines of up to £15,000 for every new vehicle sold above their quota of fossil fuel cars.
Now it has been belatedly realised that most EV sales are from businesses which get huge tax advantages.
Taxpayers are subsidising the EV purchasers and the EV industry. EVs benefit from reduced road tax, exemptions or reduced congestion or low emission zone charges, and favourable benefit-in-kind tax rates for company cars.
Various government grants and rebates are available to help offset the cost of purchasing an EV.
Businesses can reclaim 50 per cent of the VAT on lease costs and 100 per cent if the vehicle is used exclusively for business.
UK taxpayers are funding this net zero madness, while the rest of the world is driving 1.7 billion petrol/diesel vehicles.
Clark Cross, Linlithgow.
Farage will defeat blob
After the judgement of Clacton a clear political leader has emerged.
We need leaders who know what they are talking about and, indeed, who they are talking to.
This effectively eliminates Andy Burnham, who is good at talking but doesn’t always seem to know who he is talking to. Given that he is, by whatever establishment process, currently PM, this is potentially problematic for our country.
We heard plenty of hype about a newly discovered ‘Kemistry’, but when a reaction with the democratic process in Clacton was required, all the Conservative leader’s ‘chemicals’ were well hidden behind ‘comicals’.
For the Tories, their strategy involved the ‘Kemistry’ of grasping at a solution while avoiding putting their deposit at risk.
However, the clearly observed outcome of this political experiment in Clacton is an effervescent and vindicated Nigel Farage, who now awaits the further reaction of a vindictive establishment. An establishment which only exists to perpetuate the establishment.
If we are to understand the mechanics of what we are witnessing, we must move the metaphor to physics. This is political physics presenting us with the spectacle of the hitherto immovable ‘blob’ in its last throws, as it now encounters the irresistible force of Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
Dr Steven William Welsh, Stornoway, Western Isles.
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