THE government's controversial policy of releasing prisoners early with an electronic tag yesterday drew a fresh attack.
Sheriff Wyllie Robertson expressed disbelief that an inmate was given a "get-out-of-jail pass" despite committing a string of offences behind bars.
Melissa Lafferty, 18, jailed for nine months by the Stirling sheriff in May last year, spent ten we
eks at Cornton Vale prison before being released on a home-detention curfew. Mr Robertson, dealing with a housebreaking committed by Lafferty, read out a governor's report on her time there, which revealed she had tried to close a door on a staff member's face, fought with an inmate and threw water over another.
Other misdemeanours included "abusing" prison facilities, repeatedly confronting prison staff and cutting off an officer's phone call. The sheriff said: "What does a person have to do not to qualify for a home-detention curfew, because that behaviour is quite appalling?"
It is the latest attack on early release orders by the judiciary.
Last month, Sheriff Robert Dickson said he could no longer give assurances over public safety after a youth committed further crimes despite being released on a curfew order less than a third of the way through a 15-month sentence. The Scottish Prisons Commission this week called for home curfews to be scrapped.
Home detention curfews were introduced in 2006 to help prisoners to reintegrate into the community and free places in overcrowded jails.
Prisoners can be freed after serving as little as a quarter of their sentence, and the SNP earlier this year moved to extend the scheme to more serious criminals.
Sheriff Robertson took an unusual step in reading the prison governor's report to an open court.
Lafferty, who lives with her mother in Ochil Crescent, in Stirling's Raploch district, yesterday admitted breaking into a house in Montgomery Way, Stirling, on 18 February this year with intent to steal, while on bail.
Frazer McCready, Lafferty's solicitor, said alcohol had "played a part".
The sheriff jailed Lafferty for a further nine months.
The full article contains 346 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
