CHRIS DONNELLY SPEAKS AT SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE ON YOUTH JUSTICE
Conservative candidate for Linlithgow, Chris Donnelly, spoke to the Scottish Conservative conference in Perth at the weekend on the issue of youth justice and Scotland’s booming prison population.
With the UK jailing more people than any other country in Western Europe, our prisons are at bursting point.
In addition, the issues of youth crime and “low level” crimes, such as anti social behaviour are recurrent themes on the doorsteps.
Chris said, “For the length of sentences which many of these less serious crimes carry, we have to ask if it is worth while locking people up in institutions which might do them and society more harm than good.
“Make no mistake, if a crime has been committed the offender should be punished, but I believe that that if it is a first time offence and no danger to the public is probable, punishment would be better served in the community on proper, constructive community sentence programmes. Currently we hear stories of offenders turning up late, probation workers allowing them to go home early, and not much work gets done, let alone skills learned.
“If we want to prevent people committing crime in the community again, they need to be part of that community, and that means making an investment in it. Furthermore, we should take the opportunity of state supervision to ensure that they leave the programmes with a skill which will allow them to find a job when they leave the justice system.
“I also believe that the Scottish Government were wrong to end short term sentences and introduce Community Payback Orders for use as a blanket punishment. It is for the judiciary to decide the punishment and it might be that prison is necessary. I don’t want a system which is simply designed to empty prisons.”
