Scotland's 'Soft Touch' Prisons

A prisoner enjoys his yoga lesson

We've been hearing quite a bit about Scotland's prisons recently and in particular the 'open estate'.

What we haven't heard so much about is the list of entertainment offered to prisoners, in addition to television, play stations and the rest. Yes I do mean entertainment because many of the courses and therapies offered free of charge to prisoners would be enjoyable for me too if I could afford them. Yoga, hand massage, head and neck massage, website design and pottery are some of the courses on offer. I'm jealous.

The classes, run by private practitioners, NHS staff, college lecturers and prison staff, are among more than 100 health, sporting and educational programmes offered by the Scottish Prison Service. None of the classes leads to a recognised qualification but are aimed at improving prisoners' wellbeing and preparing them for release. Prisoners serving sentences in open prisons are also offered hill walking and cycling.

Critics say the prison classes are symptomatic of a 'soft touch' justice system and should be reviewed. I entirely agree and I'm sure every victim of a criminal does too.

Seems like good old-fashioned work is out of the question for those who commit crimes. Isn't it time we installed the likes of Joe Arpaio? His re-offending rate is the lowest in the US.

Isn't this an ideal opportunity for the SNP to stop this soft touch system and introduce something similar to Joe Arpaio? No wonder the re-offending level is at around 85% in our criminal community when they're given all this, courtesy your and mine hard earned money. Yes I know the US doesn't come under the legislation of our Human Rights Act but what does this say about it? It was introduced, with great aplomb, to say it would make life fairer for victims.

Please, we really need to look very closely at what is happening in our country with regard to this legislation. We can't continue to ignore the damage this Act does to these victims and promoting the advantages shown to the criminals is showing how far the morals of our society have fallen.

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