Prison overcrowding is at crisis point in Scotland

Victim Support Scotland (VSS) and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) have jointly urged victims of crime to sign up to a notification scheme as thousands of prisoners get released.

Starting today (18 February) they will be released in three phases over over six weeks.

Up to 390 prisoners are being released early to ease prison overcrowding after emergency legislation was passed last year.

It means inmates sentenced to less than four years could be freed after 40% of their term, rather than 50%.

However those serving sentences for domestic abuse or sexual offences are excluded.

Kate Wallace, chief executive of VSS, said victims were worried about safety.

She said early releases had also raised anxiety amongst victims of older crimes, sometimes causing renewed trauma.

Lynn Burns, a campaigner for victims of crime, whose son was murdered, said that on one hand, 40% of a sentence might not be enough time to rehabilitate a prisoner.

On the other, some prisoners were serving prison terms who should have been sentenced to alternatives.

She said some people should be in prison for the safety of the public, but there were other examples in the wider community where more could be done to rehabilitate those who had committed crimes.

"How we punish and rehabilitate people should be an issue, and how we care for victims should be as big a priority. And I don't believe it always is,” she said.

"What we've been doing is not working."

A Scottish government spokesperson said: "In line with trends seen elsewhere in the UK, Scotland's prison population has significantly grown in recent years and, consequently, this rise has impacted prisons and the wider justice system.

"We will continue to work closely with victim support organisations to ensure that accessible information is available to victims on the change to the release point for short-term prisoners."