Scotland (From Imprisonment Today and Tomorrow: International Perspectives on Prisoners' Rights and Prison Conditions, P 494-535, 1991, Dirk van Zyl Smit and Frieder Dunkel, eds. -- See NCJ-133824)

• NCJ Number: 133839
• Author(s): M Adler
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 42 pages
• Sale Source: Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

The prison system of Scotland is in a crisis, with overcrowding resulting largely from the large number of offenders incarcerated due to defaults on paying fines, pretrial detainees, offenders with short custodial sentences, and inmates with lengthy sentences.

Abstract

Before 1877, fines, corporal punishment, exile, and capital punishment were the usual punishments. The Prisons Act of 1877 established an administrative framework for the prisons which was revised through the Prisons Act of 1952 and subsequent developments. Currently Scotland has a higher rate of imprisonment than all but two other European countries, although the limits on detention of unconvicted offenders has resulted in a low rate of this type of detention. The prison system contains 20 institutions, most of which are small or medium-sized. Prisoners have few rights, and inmate grievances are usually addressed within each institution. The prison rules require all healthy inmates to work; the limited amount of available employment means that most work a maximum of 30 hours per week. Proposals for corrections reform have had little effect, although the government's two 1988 discussion papers suggest two alternative approaches: one emphasizing rehabilitation and the other emphasizing control. Footnotes, tables, and 32 references