Prisons and Sentencing Reform: Developing Policy in Scotland

Abstract

This report is intended to be a contribution to current discourse on prisons and sentencing reform in Scotland. This report contains contributions on fixing Scotland’s remand problem (Sarah Armstrong), sentencing and imprisonment: judicial persperspectives(Jackie Tombs), Social Work, payback and punnishment (Fergus McNeill) and Helping us all to feel safer: The use of Imprisonment and alternative strategies (Andrew Coyle). The report is the output from a seminar about prisons and sentencing reform held in Glasgow University on 12 December 2008, which was attended by more than 50 people from academia, government, the third sector and service providers. The report presents current evidence about prisons and sentencing policy in Scotland and draws on experiences in other jurisdictions. The intention of the report is to help policy makers and practitioners access useful and relevant information, and to begin a dialogue between academics, policy makers and practitioners on the issues raised in the report.