SCOTTISH judges will be ordered to stop routinely sentencing offenders to less than a year in jail, SNP Community Safety Minister Ash Denham announced today.
Ms Denham made an “affirmative order” to initiate the shift, which will require Scottish Parliament approval, noting that short-sentence convicts are reconvicted nearly twice as often as those handed community service.
She said the new advice was “not a ban” but an extension of the current “presumption” against sentences of less than three months.
Susan Galloway talks to ASH REGAN MSP about her “Unbuyable” Bill, seeking to tackle the commercial sexual exploitation of women in Scotland
The announcement of a Women’s Justice Board should be cautiously welcomed, writes SABINA PRICE, but we need to see a recognition that our prison system is in crisis and disproportionately punishes some of the most vulnerable people in society
