Browse content similar to 22/04/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Afternoon, folks! Welcome to the Sunday Politics. | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
There's a new word circulating the Westminster village these days. | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
It's not in the Oxford English Dictionary, it begins with O and it | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
means "a bit of a mess". The word is omnishambles and it was used | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
just the other day by Labour leader Ed Milliband to describe the | :00:51. | :00:57. | |
coalition government. It's not the best backdrop for the | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
Coalition parties as they head for elections on May 3rd. And it's a | :01:01. | :01:03. | |
particular headache for the Liberal Democrats, who were already | :01:03. | :01:06. | |
suffering in the polls. We'll be talking to Deputy Prime Minister | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
Nick Clegg in our Sunday Interview. His latest mission, to reform the | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
House of Lords, will be making the headlines tomorrow. But there won't | :01:15. | :01:17. | |
be Coalition consensus. We'll have the latest from the Tory | :01:17. | :01:27. | |
:01:27. | :01:30. | ||
backbenches. And on Sunday Politics Scotland... | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
Our only women's prison is not working and should be demolished - | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
that's the finding of a commission set up by the Scottish Government. | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
I've been to Cornton Vale to speak to staff and prisoners about what | :01:39. | :01:49. | |
:01:49. | :01:49. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1526 seconds | :01:49. | :27:16. | |
It is getting that balance right. Why are you putting up so few | :27:16. | :27:22. | |
candidates in the local elections? We lost a lot of councillors last | :27:22. | :27:31. | |
year. We took a real thumping. What we are doing is normal. We are | :27:31. | :27:34. | |
focusing our resources and candidates on those areas where we | :27:34. | :27:40. | |
are strong and can campaign well. Michael Brown, your party's biggest | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
ever donor, is now being extradited from the Caribbean back to this | :27:45. | :27:51. | |
country. He gave your party �2.4 million. He is a convicted | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
fraudster. You have no legal obligation to give the money back | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
but don't you have a moral obligation? I am very pleased he is | :27:58. | :28:04. | |
coming back to serve his sentence. I should stress this is something | :28:04. | :28:11. | |
that happened before I was even an MP. What I have been told is that | :28:11. | :28:15. | |
the Electoral Commission in 2009 looked at this exhaustively as far | :28:15. | :28:20. | |
as the receipt of the money by the Liberal Democrats from one of his | :28:20. | :28:22. | |
companies and they categorically concluded that the money was | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
received in good faith and all the controls and checks her that should | :28:26. | :28:29. | |
have been made were reasonably made by the Liberal Democrats at the | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
time. If we had been shown wanting on those counts, of course, we | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
should pay the money back. whether you knew or not and I | :28:38. | :28:41. | |
accept you did not know but you work in effect in receipt of stolen | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
goods. Don't you have a moral majority to hand the money back? | :28:46. | :28:51. | |
The money was received from a particular company... I am just | :28:51. | :28:57. | |
talking about the principle. If you receive money from someone and you | :28:57. | :29:02. | |
did so on false pretences knowingly and you did not conduct the right | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
checks, of course you should pay the money back. Electoral | :29:05. | :29:12. | |
Commission showed that it was not the case and the Liberal Democrats | :29:12. | :29:16. | |
were fully exonerated. They are all sorts of stories doing the rounds | :29:16. | :29:20. | |
in Westminster that he will stand down either before or after the | :29:20. | :29:26. | |
next election. Can I give you the opportunity to scotch it does today | :29:26. | :29:34. | |
and confirm that you will fight the 2015 election. You bet. Assuming | :29:34. | :29:38. | |
you hold on to your seat, if Parliament results in another hung | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
parliament, are you up for being Deputy Prime Minister again in a | :29:42. | :29:46. | |
different coalition? I will say to you now what I said for months and | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
months no doubt in into these with you before the last election was | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
that I do not think how coalitions are formed should ever be the | :29:54. | :29:58. | |
plaything of individual politicians. You should be driven by | :29:58. | :30:00. | |
instructions from the British people. At the last election, there | :30:00. | :30:07. | |
was only one possible combination that could have led to its stable | :30:07. | :30:11. | |
government. We should always do that in the future. Thank you for | :30:11. | :30:21. | |
:30:21. | :30:22. | ||
being with us today. It is approaching 2:30pm. | :30:22. | :30:26. | |
Good afternoon and welcome to Sunday Politics Scotland. Coming up | :30:26. | :30:30. | |
on the programme: How can we improve the way women are treated | :30:30. | :30:32. | |
by the criminal justice system and stop the revolving door of | :30:32. | :30:41. | |
offenders going in and out of Cornton Vale? I have been here 12 | :30:41. | :30:45. | |
years and I am still seeing some goals who are so when I first | :30:45. | :30:49. | |
arrived there who have still never had an adequate opportunity to | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
intervene effectively. And with less than two weeks until | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
voting in the council elections, have you made your decision? I am | :30:57. | :31:01. | |
here in East Renfrewshire looking at the day in a life of a local | :31:01. | :31:05. | |
council to find out wide your vote counts. | :31:05. | :31:08. | |
Cornton Vale women's prison is not fit for purpose and we are locking | :31:08. | :31:11. | |
up too many women who should not be there, undermining efforts to | :31:11. | :31:16. | |
reform those who are a risk to the public. These are the core findings | :31:16. | :31:19. | |
of a commission investigating women in the criminal justice system. We | :31:19. | :31:21. | |
will be talking to the commission chair, the former Lord Advocate | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
Dame Eilish Angiolini in a few minutes, but first I went to | :31:24. | :31:28. | |
Cornton Vale prison earlier this week to meet a group of women who | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
were all serving sentences of more than three years for violent crimes. | :31:31. | :31:34. | |
I asked them for their impressions of how the prison system works and | :31:34. | :31:41. | |
how a jail sentence has affected them and their families. You have | :31:41. | :31:46. | |
not just lost your liberation, you have lost contact with your kids, | :31:46. | :31:55. | |
your secure attachment to your kids has been severed. You have | :31:55. | :31:58. | |
committed a crime and gone to prison and they think, that set, | :31:58. | :32:04. | |
but it's not. It is not until you get a big sentence and a Desiree | :32:04. | :32:10. | |
lot of time to think -- it gives you a lot of time to think. You | :32:10. | :32:15. | |
take a lot of things for granted. It is getting a wake-up call. | :32:15. | :32:20. | |
miss your family and kids and your freedom. It is upsetting when you | :32:20. | :32:25. | |
see them going away. I have got nine brothers and two sisters. | :32:25. | :32:31. | |
would you feel if any of them ended up here? I would be very sad. It is | :32:31. | :32:41. | |
:32:41. | :32:44. | ||
the loneliest place to be. They come in and go back out and | :32:44. | :32:52. | |
reoffend. There are no programmes. Some of the lasses are not strong | :32:52. | :32:59. | |
enough and commit suicide do stupid things to themselves. With the | :32:59. | :33:08. | |
short-term prisoners they are just in and out. People so they should | :33:08. | :33:13. | |
just lock them up and throw away the key. When you get out as you | :33:13. | :33:18. | |
expect to do shortly... I am going out to nothing. I will be homeless | :33:18. | :33:27. | |
when I get out of prison. No money. The rest of my family are broad and | :33:27. | :33:33. | |
so I have not got much support. Basically, I am on my own -- my | :33:33. | :33:39. | |
family are broad. Are you frightened? I am. I am going to | :33:39. | :33:45. | |
struggle with what has happened through my life. I am being | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
punished in here but I am going to punish myself for the rest of my | :33:48. | :33:54. | |
life for what has happened. Do you think you will be back? No chance. | :33:54. | :34:00. | |
Definitely not. My family is too precious to me. It has taken me to | :34:00. | :34:04. | |
come here to realise that. There are a lot of nice people in here. | :34:04. | :34:10. | |
Obviously, everybody makes mistakes in their life so you would not | :34:10. | :34:14. | |
think they were in for what they are in for. Sometimes you do need | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
to give people second chances. The commission findings released | :34:17. | :34:20. | |
this week are the latest in a very long line of reports and | :34:20. | :34:22. | |
investigations which have all recommended radical change at | :34:22. | :34:25. | |
Cornton Vale, much of it informed by the opinions and experiences of | :34:25. | :34:29. | |
the front line staff. In Cornton Vale, I sat down with the governor | :34:29. | :34:32. | |
of the prison, Theresa Medhurst, lead doctor Craig Sayers, chaplain | :34:32. | :34:39. | |
Bill Taylor and Diane Cairns, a mother and child development worker. | :34:39. | :34:42. | |
I began by asking about what they thought were the most common | :34:42. | :34:50. | |
misconceptions about women in prison. I think people are | :34:50. | :34:56. | |
genuinely taken aback at the kinds of lives that folk are living. I | :34:56. | :35:00. | |
think that is because they are preconceptions which may be are | :35:00. | :35:09. | |
fuelled by the media that there are goodies and baddies we are divided | :35:10. | :35:15. | |
along those kinds of access. From a medical point of view, do you think | :35:15. | :35:20. | |
the women should be here? I believe not. The ones who have short | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
sentences do not really achieve anything within the establishment. | :35:24. | :35:27. | |
We do not have time to achieve things. Potentially, it is | :35:27. | :35:31. | |
dangerous, to open up some of their medical issues. When you are | :35:31. | :35:36. | |
dealing with mothers and children, what do you think of some of the | :35:36. | :35:39. | |
key public misconceptions about prison life? That they get | :35:39. | :35:43. | |
everything handed to them on a plate and that things are easy for | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
them. They have now got someone else looking after their children. | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
A lot of these women want to look after the children. What we do like | :35:53. | :35:57. | |
to do that you cannot do at the moment and why can you not direct? | :35:57. | :36:03. | |
Probably the biggest thing is to have more of a focus on those women | :36:03. | :36:08. | |
in here who present the greatest risk to the public, those who are | :36:08. | :36:12. | |
here long term and those whose behaviour is high-risk. At the | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
moment, we have to spend significant periods of time | :36:16. | :36:22. | |
managing women in and out of custody. That is because of the | :36:22. | :36:25. | |
short-term nature of the population. There is very little we can do so | :36:25. | :36:29. | |
it is very difficult for us and if it is difficult for us, how | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
difficult must it be for those women? What indication does that | :36:32. | :36:35. | |
have won a medical basis if what you are saying is that with a lot | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
of these women who have severe problems you do not have time to do | :36:39. | :36:42. | |
anything with them? It has a significant impact. When they | :36:42. | :36:48. | |
arrive, we need to be consistent so we cannot treat gulls to friendly | :36:48. | :36:52. | |
for different postcodes in terms of medication. We have longer term | :36:52. | :36:57. | |
plans to help address addictions, physical health issues, mental | :36:57. | :37:01. | |
health issues, but week require a significant period of time to | :37:01. | :37:07. | |
address those to any satisfactory standard. Lots used drugs not for | :37:07. | :37:13. | |
enjoyment but to plant have dramatic -- traumatic past issues. | :37:13. | :37:17. | |
To open those can of worms and then release them to we Slater is a | :37:17. | :37:21. | |
dangerous thing to do. What kind of work do you do with the women and | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
children? We have women who have never experienced parenting | :37:25. | :37:27. | |
themselves so they do not know what to do with their child. That is | :37:28. | :37:32. | |
difficult. We have women who have had good parenting skills but have | :37:32. | :37:37. | |
gone off the rails for whatever reason. Things have become chaotic. | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
The women who have had nothing, it is about starting from the ground, | :37:41. | :37:46. | |
the very basics. What sort of things? They do not know basics | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
stuff on making up bottles, they cannot follow the instructions | :37:49. | :37:53. | |
because there are literary issues may be. And Parenting is such a | :37:53. | :37:58. | |
difficult job. No one ever actually shows us what to do. The only thing | :37:58. | :38:05. | |
that works is intense parenting work that we can do with families | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
and mothers. Given all we know about early years and their | :38:09. | :38:13. | |
importance, how valuable do you think this particular line of work | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
is in prison? Many a lot of our patients will state their | :38:17. | :38:24. | |
motivation to get a better life, to avoid crime, to avoid drug use, is | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
because of their children. They wish to regain custody of their | :38:27. | :38:32. | |
children. So it goes hand in hand. Confidence is a big thing? I think | :38:32. | :38:40. | |
very often we will find women saying things about themselves that | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
betrays their own self-perception which is invariably very low. | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
People think badly of themselves, their behaviour very often is | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
turned in upon themselves through self-harm and very negative | :38:55. | :39:00. | |
thoughts about their lives. Let alone their behaviour. People do | :39:00. | :39:09. | |
not have a sense of a life worth living. I think in many ways that | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
is what we are seeking to restore, to offer people a different self | :39:14. | :39:19. | |
image. If your objective is to make communities better and safer, does | :39:19. | :39:27. | |
this prison work? This present works in respect of -- this prison | :39:27. | :39:30. | |
works in respect of providing support and input and services to | :39:30. | :39:36. | |
those prisoners who was serving longer sentences. Because most of | :39:36. | :39:40. | |
them are statutory cases, they do have the support on release that | :39:40. | :39:44. | |
means that they are more likely to succeed. In that respect, I would | :39:44. | :39:52. | |
say it back Cornton Vale does work. But it does not work with the short | :39:52. | :39:58. | |
term and high remand population because we can offer very little to | :39:58. | :40:04. | |
women who are coming in here for a short period of time. If that were | :40:04. | :40:09. | |
taken away, where the number of prisoners on remand was reduced, if | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
the number of people coming in on short-term sentences was reduced, | :40:12. | :40:18. | |
we would be able to concentrate our efforts far more effectively to get | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
the women to the stage where they are confident about going back out | :40:22. | :40:26. | |
through those gates and have got a realistic chance of turning their | :40:26. | :40:31. | |
lives around when they are released. What should be the alternatives | :40:31. | :40:35. | |
then, do you think? alternatives should be alternatives | :40:35. | :40:42. | |
within the community because essentially we up -- a lot of the | :40:42. | :40:46. | |
problems come from the communities. We are dealing with their behaviour | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
is within the confines of a present but you are not dealing with the | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
community based problems. You can hear people saying, this is about | :40:54. | :40:59. | |
punishment, these people have to serve time. But in your opinion, is | :40:59. | :41:04. | |
it working in a punishment cents, a medical sense, in any sense at all, | :41:04. | :41:10. | |
for these short-term prisoners? the short-term prisoners, no. It | :41:10. | :41:12. | |
destabilises some of the environments that are stable. For | :41:12. | :41:16. | |
some it is vague brief time-out from extremely chaotic environments | :41:16. | :41:20. | |
outside but not enough time to change their environments. I have | :41:20. | :41:25. | |
been here 12 years and I am still seeing some girls who I saw when I | :41:25. | :41:28. | |
first arrived who on short sentences and has still never had | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
an adequate opportunity to intervene effectively. What do you | :41:32. | :41:37. | |
think about this idea that people are just swirling around the system | :41:37. | :41:39. | |
and not being dealt with and therefore communities are not safe | :41:39. | :41:45. | |
for? That is definitely what I find as well. These are the women that | :41:45. | :41:53. | |
will not engage with services and activities. They tend to opt out a | :41:53. | :41:57. | |
lot of the time because they know it is a short sentence and they | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
will be back out doing whatever it is they want to do. Who are the | :42:01. | :42:06. | |
women in here? The women in here are just women, normal women like | :42:06. | :42:11. | |
you and died. How many judges, sheriffs, come to Cornton Vale to | :42:11. | :42:14. | |
say, let me have a look at the programmes and where women are | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
being held and how effective your programs are? In almost three years, | :42:18. | :42:26. | |
I have not had any asked to come and look around. None. The effect | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
of that? I do not think there is an understanding of what we can do | :42:30. | :42:36. | |
here. I do not think there is an appreciation of the damage that can | :42:36. | :42:42. | |
be done by some of the short-term sentences and how that impacts on | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
our ability to be able to address those with the more complex needs. | :42:47. | :42:51. | |
Thank you. I am joined now by the QC and | :42:51. | :42:53. | |
former Lord Advocate, Dame Ailish Angolini who chaired the Commission | :42:53. | :43:01. | |
on Women Offenders. Thank you for coming in. If we start with the | :43:01. | :43:05. | |
premise that the objective is to cut reoffending and make | :43:05. | :43:09. | |
communities safer, who should be in prison and he shouldn't? Every case | :43:09. | :43:18. | |
differs and the individual factors are important. Human beings... One- | :43:18. | :43:23. | |
size-fits-all will inevitably be crude. Essentially, the interviews | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
which she carried out of their summarise it very neatly. It is | :43:26. | :43:30. | |
those who are a danger to the community, those who have committed | :43:30. | :43:35. | |
very serious crimes and who cannot be left safely in the community. | :43:36. | :43:41. | |
The difficulty is that they are a very small number of the population | :43:41. | :43:44. | |
currently in Cornton Vale. The very large numbers are those committing | :43:44. | :43:48. | |
offences which are serious and the sense that they do disturb the | :43:48. | :43:51. | |
community but require effective management and to be tackled in an | :43:51. | :43:55. | |
effective way and the sentences do not do that. They are not working. | :43:55. | :44:02. | |
What do you think would be more constructive? The commission report | :44:02. | :44:07. | |
outlines what we believe would be a radical reworking of the current | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
system. They are very good alternatives to custody in the | :44:11. | :44:14. | |
community which provide a punishment, paying back to the | :44:14. | :44:19. | |
community. So very often, the community can then benefit from the | :44:19. | :44:24. | |
work of offenders. Also, allowing people to tackle the underlying | :44:24. | :44:28. | |
causes of their behaviour. Many of the women in Cornton Vale have | :44:28. | :44:33. | |
significant mental health problems. Many of them self-harm because they | :44:33. | :44:37. | |
have such self-loathing and low self-esteem. Many also have | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
suffered sexual and physical abuse through their lives. They have had | :44:41. | :44:47. | |
very ghastly child puts, many of them. Many of them are victims of | :44:47. | :44:52. | |
crime. The idea that there's a dichotomy of those who are accused | :44:52. | :44:55. | |
of crime and the victims is artificial. They overlap very | :44:55. | :45:05. | |
:45:05. | :45:06. | ||
We had a statement yesterday from victim Support Scotland. They say a | :45:06. | :45:12. | |
huge percentage of women, there is nowhere else to put them. They | :45:12. | :45:15. | |
support community-based programmes were those sentences of six months | :45:15. | :45:20. | |
or less. When we see the examples of their ligature cell in Cornton | :45:20. | :45:24. | |
Vale, where women and bought her who are a very high risk to | :45:24. | :45:27. | |
themselves are held, one would almost think that the mental health | :45:27. | :45:33. | |
problems of these women justify sectioning them. What sort of | :45:33. | :45:39. | |
people are going in there and can they be effectively treated? Where | :45:39. | :45:41. | |
there are very serious mental health problems, they are dealt | :45:41. | :45:46. | |
with effectively. But there are many women who have what would be | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
conditions that would be treated by primary care, through GPs or | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
psychologists or psychiatrists, but because of their personalities or | :45:54. | :45:58. | |
the chaotic nature of their lifestyles, they tend to self- | :45:58. | :46:05. | |
medicate with drugs and alcohol and do not go to the doctor. They | :46:05. | :46:10. | |
simply sometimes allow a mental health conditions to deteriorate. | :46:10. | :46:13. | |
There needs to be a different nature of programme towards these | :46:13. | :46:18. | |
women. We need to take them out of the officers and into the streets | :46:18. | :46:24. | |
to become Street doctors. That style of thinking also includes the | :46:24. | :46:30. | |
courts. How would a just as harbour or work and would it be a lot more | :46:31. | :46:40. | |
expensive? -- Justice hob. Over 150 different services are provided in | :46:40. | :46:44. | |
Cornton Vale. It is chaos for the prison trying to deal with all | :46:44. | :46:48. | |
these different programmes. There are different types of funding and | :46:48. | :46:54. | |
sometimes there are there for different times. We need a decent, | :46:54. | :46:56. | |
strong courts led by criminal- justice social workers who are | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
working collaboratively. That is not rocket science. It takes | :47:00. | :47:04. | |
imagination and innovation. It should not take a huge amount of | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
money. There are plenty of people working in silos who need to get it | :47:08. | :47:14. | |
together and work collectively. Thank you. | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
There are other options available for dealing with female offenders | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
who currently receive short term sentences. One such project is the | :47:20. | :47:23. | |
218 service in Glasgow. It works to rehabilitate prisoners and stop | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
them re-offending. We agreed not to fully identify the women who told | :47:26. | :47:36. | |
:47:36. | :47:38. | ||
their stories to Kathy Long. For some women who have been inside | :47:38. | :47:42. | |
Cornton Vale, prison has never prevented them from returning to | :47:42. | :47:46. | |
crime. It's never did me any good or I would not be still be going in | :47:46. | :47:51. | |
and out. I just got a five day detox in prison. That was really | :47:51. | :47:58. | |
hard. 218 is an alternative to jail for those who have committed minor | :47:58. | :48:02. | |
offences - shoplifting, breach of the peace or failing to pay a fine. | :48:02. | :48:07. | |
The women here will treat their addictions. They will also attend | :48:07. | :48:12. | |
workshops and classes to give them skills and education. Being sent to | :48:12. | :48:15. | |
a place like this, you are dealing with a drug problems, defending, | :48:15. | :48:23. | |
dealing with everything. This is more appropriate. There is always | :48:23. | :48:28. | |
somebody there to talk to you. If you're having a bad day, there's | :48:28. | :48:37. | |
always someone there. So what is at the soft option? At 218 is a much | :48:37. | :48:42. | |
harder option then prison. When you explore that with a woman that is | :48:42. | :48:47. | |
about to come to 218, they have to do the work and do the programme. A | :48:47. | :48:51. | |
lot of that programmes about looking at themselves. 218 can cost | :48:51. | :48:57. | |
half as much as a prison sentence for the same crime. The rate of | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
reoffending is significantly reduced. I would not offend after | :49:01. | :49:09. | |
coming out of 218. There is no reason. It actually works. You feel | :49:09. | :49:14. | |
like a failure, but this place makes you feel like you have a | :49:14. | :49:18. | |
chance to get right again. Joining me in the studio is the | :49:18. | :49:25. | |
Conservative MSP, Margaret Mitchell. You also the convenor of the | :49:25. | :49:31. | |
Hollywood equal-opportunities committee when it looked as this. | :49:31. | :49:36. | |
You'll be basing your opinions on evidence and expert witness opinion. | :49:36. | :49:39. | |
All the evidence suggests that sentences of six months or less did | :49:39. | :49:43. | |
not work and all the expert opinion seems to say the same thing. So why | :49:43. | :49:47. | |
have the Tories and the Labour Party set their face against | :49:47. | :49:53. | |
getting good of prison sentences of six months or less. | :49:53. | :49:58. | |
It is very much horses-for-courses. What we discovered in the report we | :49:58. | :50:00. | |
did and the equal opportunities committee was that in Cornton Vale, | :50:01. | :50:04. | |
there were far too many people on remand, 70% of which were never | :50:04. | :50:11. | |
going to get a prison sentence. But time and effort, the warders, the | :50:11. | :50:14. | |
people who would be doing Rehabilitation, all their effort | :50:14. | :50:18. | |
was going on looking after these people. We heard about people who | :50:18. | :50:22. | |
had mental health issues. They were not being dealt with. 1% should | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
have been hospitalised. They're still there. Call one reason or | :50:26. | :50:32. | |
other, people do end up on short- term sentences in Cornton Vale. You | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
might look at alternatives, but when you run right of every single | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
alternative you can go to, then there will be, for one reason or | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
another, prisoners there on short- term sentences. Quite frankly, | :50:43. | :50:48. | |
they're getting no support, no help and no resources were given to them. | :50:48. | :50:50. | |
That is where we are fundamentally criticising that nothing is done | :50:50. | :50:55. | |
with these people. Even having someone for one month or two months, | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
think of the things you can do it in terms of the dressing literacy, | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
numeracy and sometimes, from the 218 report as well, speech and a | :51:04. | :51:08. | |
lack of confidence to communicate. All of these things have been known | :51:08. | :51:14. | |
since 2009, when be completed a report. Nothing has been done. The | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
political will has not been there. But the expert opinion is that you | :51:18. | :51:22. | |
can deal with those things, but you better to deal with them not in a | :51:22. | :51:26. | |
prison environment for a few months, or even in a situation where it | :51:26. | :51:30. | |
could be medically dangerous to try to teats -- treat them in that time | :51:30. | :51:34. | |
scale, but to take them into the community and a structured, long- | :51:34. | :51:38. | |
term programmes their. The concern would be but this is just political | :51:38. | :51:42. | |
posturing and lazy thinking to say that you can put these women in | :51:42. | :51:50. | |
prison for six months or less. How did you respond to that? We are not | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
saying put people in prison for less than six months. We are more | :51:53. | :51:58. | |
than happy to look at the alternatives. If you go back to | :51:58. | :52:01. | |
that 2009 report, we praise to the high heavens the work being done in | :52:02. | :52:07. | |
the 218 Centre in Glasgow. We pointed out that the Scottish | :52:07. | :52:13. | |
Government in Edinburgh would love another 218 centre. We said we | :52:13. | :52:21. | |
needed to redress romance. -- address a wee man. There's nothing | :52:21. | :52:27. | |
substantially different in that report but was known in 2009. | :52:27. | :52:35. | |
you create -- agree that it should increase the six months? There | :52:35. | :52:40. | |
should not be a presumption. We should look at each case on its own | :52:40. | :52:46. | |
merits. If there is any element of a potential problem to public | :52:46. | :52:50. | |
safety, then public safety must come first. There is no question | :52:50. | :52:56. | |
there. Beyond that, there is a whole list of interventions that | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
should be put in place and the political will has not been there | :52:59. | :53:04. | |
to do that. If we come back to the point about | :53:04. | :53:08. | |
the prison governor, where we were talking about the judges and how | :53:08. | :53:11. | |
they and the sheriffs had not been to Cornton Vale. What you think | :53:11. | :53:19. | |
about that?'s do report mentions the judiciary specifically. | :53:19. | :53:24. | |
It is important that the judges have confident the alternatives of | :53:24. | :53:33. | |
custody and that the community have that confidence as well. It is very | :53:33. | :53:35. | |
important that this new service that we are recommending measures | :53:35. | :53:39. | |
the impact and can actually demonstrate that reoffending is | :53:40. | :53:43. | |
reduced. Then, the community and the judges will have more | :53:43. | :53:47. | |
confidence. So far as the Conford - - judges are concerned, their | :53:47. | :53:53. | |
training requires to be supported and that the sea and visit prisons | :53:53. | :53:58. | |
regularly. They should be out there. They should be understanding of | :53:58. | :54:01. | |
what they're sending people to. They should be visiting the | :54:01. | :54:05. | |
community alternatives as part of their training to understand what | :54:05. | :54:13. | |
is available. Then, they can actually influence what is working. | :54:13. | :54:19. | |
These are just two of the reports - there are seven substantial ones. | :54:19. | :54:23. | |
You could argue that nothing has changed. What will change because | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
of your report? Like any report, it could gather | :54:27. | :54:34. | |
dust and the words on a shelf. I recommend a Cabinet Secretary to | :54:34. | :54:37. | |
report in six months of what he is going to do. There is a political | :54:37. | :54:41. | |
will and a recognition of it. This gives the politician and the | :54:41. | :54:46. | |
Government the tools to restructure the way this is all done. | :54:46. | :54:51. | |
Thank you. We did ask for the Justice | :54:51. | :54:57. | |
Secretary to be here, he says it is vital that we find a more effective | :54:57. | :55:02. | |
way to deal with women offenders and 21st century Scotland. I will | :55:02. | :55:04. | |
consider this report in detail before making a formal response and | :55:04. | :55:06. | |
summertime. And now here's the news, with | :55:06. | :55:08. | |
Andrew Kerr. The American tycoon Donald Trump is | :55:08. | :55:11. | |
due to fly in to Aberdeen Airport this afternoon. The entrepreneur is | :55:11. | :55:14. | |
giving evidence to a Holyrood committee on Wednesday about | :55:14. | :55:16. | |
renewable energy. He's objecting to a planned offshore wind development | :55:16. | :55:21. | |
near the site of his �1 billion golf resort in Aberdeenshire. Mr | :55:21. | :55:23. | |
Trump claims Scotland is committing financial suicide by creating a | :55:23. | :55:29. | |
windfarm landscape. Officials in the Dominican Republic | :55:29. | :55:31. | |
say the convicted Glasgow-born fraudster, Michael Brown, who was | :55:31. | :55:34. | |
once a major donor to the Liberal Democrats, is being extradited to | :55:34. | :55:40. | |
Britain. He's understood to be on a flight to Madrid, where he's | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
expected to be handed over to the British authorities. | :55:44. | :55:47. | |
Having enough money is not a high priority for Scots, according to | :55:47. | :55:51. | |
Oxfam. A poll carried out for the charity found housing and health | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
were more important to people. Oxfam says this suggests most Scots | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
want enough to provide for their families and that economic measures | :55:57. | :56:03. | |
like GDP are part of a failed economic model. | :56:03. | :56:13. | |
:56:13. | :56:13. | ||
And now here's the weather with Another afternoon of sunshine and | :56:13. | :56:17. | |
showers. The best of the driest conditions will be across the Outer | :56:17. | :56:22. | |
Hebrides. Nearly everywhere is at risk of brain. There are cloudier | :56:22. | :56:28. | |
conditions across the East with lighter showers. Not feeling too | :56:28. | :56:32. | |
Babbs with a rise of 12 Celsius. That's the news and weather, our | :56:32. | :56:35. | |
next update is just after 6.30pm this evening. I'll now hand you | :56:35. | :56:41. | |
With the local election campaign underway, the major parties have | :56:41. | :56:43. | |
been voicing their concerns about low turnout. We sent Gilly | :56:43. | :56:46. | |
Mathieson to East Renfrewshire, one of the most politically engaged | :56:46. | :56:56. | |
:56:56. | :57:01. | ||
electorates in Scotland to find out why your votes count. | :57:01. | :57:10. | |
I am one of a team of 34 or who looks after 475 kilometres. | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
I am looking out for a glittering offences. | :57:13. | :57:18. | |
We collect glass and waste paper for recycling. | :57:18. | :57:24. | |
Rhodes, community safety, waste and education are some of the policies | :57:24. | :57:30. | |
set at Hollywood but delivered by a local council. These final-year | :57:30. | :57:32. | |
students believe many voters are confused about who is responsible | :57:32. | :57:37. | |
for providing them. People can often get confused about | :57:37. | :57:42. | |
who is running for what and who is standing for what. | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
People don't vote in council elections because they do not | :57:45. | :57:48. | |
understand their own counsel's play in their area. They still think | :57:48. | :57:53. | |
there are decisions come from Government. | :57:53. | :57:56. | |
Part of their remit is to promote health. People think that is the | :57:56. | :58:03. | |
job of the NHS. Scotland's councils spend �18.7 | :58:03. | :58:07. | |
billion of our money. In East Renfrewshire, almost 20% of its | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
budget goes on social care services like this, with 11% on the | :58:12. | :58:22. | |
:58:22. | :58:23. | ||
environment and half of its budget With polling day less than two | :58:23. | :58:28. | |
weeks away, there are no visible signs of an election campaign in | :58:28. | :58:34. | |
this suburb. There is only one campaign going on and that is the | :58:34. | :58:37. | |
national campaign. I have not seen any campaigning and the local | :58:37. | :58:41. | |
elections. It is almost as if they're not here. | :58:41. | :58:46. | |
People are being bombarded with the media, papers, radio, television | :58:46. | :58:51. | |
and it is either UK or Scotland. They're missing the issues | :58:51. | :58:55. | |
altogether. With the independence referendum | :58:56. | :58:58. | |
expected in 2014, the Paul is an important test of political | :58:58. | :59:02. | |
strength. You have this big national campaign | :59:02. | :59:06. | |
with the parties trying to get on top and then small local campaigns | :59:06. | :59:11. | |
about small local issues. A two- speed campaign. | :59:11. | :59:15. | |
Whatever your reasons for voting on third May, there is a lot at stake | :59:15. | :59:24. | |
for the parties and for the delivery of you are local services. | :59:24. | :59:29. |