Minister says send convicts out to work

IN MATES in Scotland's biggest prison should be let out to work on major construction projects including new facilities for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the justice secretary said yesterday.

Kenny MacAskill said it was "ridiculous" that there were 1,500 prisoners stuck behind bars in Barlinnie jail when they could be used to fill the labour gap in the construction industry. He said that instead of using prison gates as a "revolving door", offenders should be required to do "hard work" on building and engineering projects that could be hit by labour shortages.

Opposition politicians last night fiercely attacked the proposal that prisoners should be used to fill labour shortages. Labour MSP Paul Martin said: "If he's suggesting somebody who commits a vicious assault should be subject to rehabilitation by putting them on a building site rather than behind bars, that's a scandal."

But industry experts welcomed the plan, saying it would improve long-term job prospects in an industry that has suffered extreme labour shortages in recent years. Victims' groups, meanwhile, said they were comfortable with the move, claiming that public safety would not be jeopardised.

Speaking at a conference on the need for penal reform, Mr MacAskill said he was eager to involve the private sector in rehabilitating prisoners and reducing the prison population, which last week hit a record high of more than 8,000.

He said the construction industry was facing a labour shortage, despite the credit crunch, and suggested that sending prisoners at Barlinnie jail in Glasgow on building projects would be more productive than keeping them behind bars.

"We cannot go on as we are, where we end up with a situation where we have people who we need to be constructive who are stuck behind bars.

"It's in our interests when we have got the M74 north extension, the construction of the Commonwealth Games stadia, the construction of the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, with Poles returning to their country.

"It's ridiculous that we have 1,500 people in Barlinnie. We need them out doing some hard work to make Glasgow a better place."

Mr MacAskill did not explain exactly how he proposed to get offenders involved in construction, but one way would be through tougher community sentences being planned by the Scottish Government. Ministers want less serious criminals "paying back" to their local community for their crimes, rather than being continually sent briefly to jail.

Another possibility is sending more inmates on work placements. Barlinnie has no such programme, but other jails run day-release schemes for "low-risk" prisoners. These include Saughton in Edinburgh, Perth and Shotts, and the open prisons of Castle Huntly and Noranside.

Mr MacAskill is keen to get more private companies into jails to train inmates, increasing their chances of securing a job on release and reducing the likelihood they will reoffend. This rarely happens at Barlinnie because of massive overcrowding.

Following yesterday's conference, Mr MacAskill held a meeting with the Wise Group, a charity that helps people back into work, to discuss his plans.

David Lonsdale, from CBI Scotland, welcomed Mr MacAskill's call, but cautioned that it could make it harder for builders to find work during the downturn.

"The minister is right to highlight the sector where that ought to be possible over the coming years, namely construction, with big projects in the pipeline in terms of transport and energy infrastructure, together with the Commonwealth Games. That's great news for job prospects over the medium and longer term; however the current downturn in housebuilding means that competition for available construction work is more intense."

Bernadette Monaghan, chief executive of Apex Scotland, which gives training to offenders, said the idea was good – provided the right offenders were picked. "We have had a lot of schemes in the past where we have tried to place people straight from prison into employment and it hasn't worked. You have to make them employable first. For example, you couldn't send someone on methadone on to a construction site," she said.

A spokesman for Victim Support Scotland said the group has "no problem" with the proposal. "We are confident that uppermost in his mind will be public safety."

But Mr Martin, Labour's community safety spokesman, said Mr MacAskill should be "ashamed" for suggesting that prisoners be used to shore up the construction labour market. "Victims will be horrified to learn that somebody who was the perpetrator of a serious crime is working on a building site," he said.

Bill Aitken MSP, Tory justice spokesman, said: "Frankly, the reduction in prison numbers is a budgetary-driven obsession on the part of the SNP government and they seem hell-bent on going down this route with a total disregard for public safety and security."

However, a spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said it was highly unlikely that serious, violent criminals would be sent to a construction site instead of prison. "I don't think he's talking about rapists being allowed to work on building sites," she said.

The idea of offenders being put to work on Commonwealth Games construction work was first suggested by Scottish Government officials in a document published earlier this year.

The consultation paper, entitled Glasgow 2014 – Delivering a Lasting Legacy for Scotland, said one benefit of hosting the Games could be more opportunity for offenders, or those at risk of offending, to acquire skills or be diverted from crime.