:00:37. > :00:40.Afternoon, folks! Welcome to the Sunday Politics.
:00:40. > :00:43.There's a new word circulating the Westminster village these days.
:00:43. > :00:48.It's not in the Oxford English Dictionary, it begins with O and it
:00:48. > :00:51.means "a bit of a mess". The word is omnishambles and it was used
:00:51. > :00:57.just the other day by Labour leader Ed Milliband to describe the
:00:57. > :01:01.coalition government. It's not the best backdrop for the
:01:01. > :01:03.Coalition parties as they head for elections on May 3rd. And it's a
:01:03. > :01:06.particular headache for the Liberal Democrats, who were already
:01:06. > :01:11.suffering in the polls. We'll be talking to Deputy Prime Minister
:01:11. > :01:14.Nick Clegg in our Sunday Interview. His latest mission, to reform the
:01:15. > :01:17.House of Lords, will be making the headlines tomorrow. But there won't
:01:17. > :01:27.be Coalition consensus. We'll have the latest from the Tory
:01:27. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:33.backbenches. And on Sunday Politics Scotland...
:01:33. > :01:36.Our only women's prison is not working and should be demolished -
:01:36. > :01:39.that's the finding of a commission set up by the Scottish Government.
:01:39. > :01:49.I've been to Cornton Vale to speak to staff and prisoners about what
:01:49. > :01:49.
:01:49. > :27:16.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1526 seconds
:27:16. > :27:22.It is getting that balance right. Why are you putting up so few
:27:22. > :27:31.candidates in the local elections? We lost a lot of councillors last
:27:31. > :27:34.year. We took a real thumping. What we are doing is normal. We are
:27:34. > :27:40.focusing our resources and candidates on those areas where we
:27:40. > :27:45.are strong and can campaign well. Michael Brown, your party's biggest
:27:45. > :27:51.ever donor, is now being extradited from the Caribbean back to this
:27:51. > :27:55.country. He gave your party �2.4 million. He is a convicted
:27:55. > :27:58.fraudster. You have no legal obligation to give the money back
:27:58. > :28:04.but don't you have a moral obligation? I am very pleased he is
:28:04. > :28:11.coming back to serve his sentence. I should stress this is something
:28:11. > :28:15.that happened before I was even an MP. What I have been told is that
:28:15. > :28:20.the Electoral Commission in 2009 looked at this exhaustively as far
:28:20. > :28:22.as the receipt of the money by the Liberal Democrats from one of his
:28:22. > :28:26.companies and they categorically concluded that the money was
:28:26. > :28:29.received in good faith and all the controls and checks her that should
:28:29. > :28:33.have been made were reasonably made by the Liberal Democrats at the
:28:33. > :28:38.time. If we had been shown wanting on those counts, of course, we
:28:38. > :28:41.should pay the money back. whether you knew or not and I
:28:41. > :28:46.accept you did not know but you work in effect in receipt of stolen
:28:46. > :28:51.goods. Don't you have a moral majority to hand the money back?
:28:51. > :28:57.The money was received from a particular company... I am just
:28:57. > :29:02.talking about the principle. If you receive money from someone and you
:29:02. > :29:05.did so on false pretences knowingly and you did not conduct the right
:29:05. > :29:12.checks, of course you should pay the money back. Electoral
:29:12. > :29:16.Commission showed that it was not the case and the Liberal Democrats
:29:16. > :29:20.were fully exonerated. They are all sorts of stories doing the rounds
:29:20. > :29:26.in Westminster that he will stand down either before or after the
:29:26. > :29:34.next election. Can I give you the opportunity to scotch it does today
:29:34. > :29:38.and confirm that you will fight the 2015 election. You bet. Assuming
:29:38. > :29:42.you hold on to your seat, if Parliament results in another hung
:29:42. > :29:46.parliament, are you up for being Deputy Prime Minister again in a
:29:46. > :29:50.different coalition? I will say to you now what I said for months and
:29:50. > :29:54.months no doubt in into these with you before the last election was
:29:54. > :29:58.that I do not think how coalitions are formed should ever be the
:29:58. > :30:00.plaything of individual politicians. You should be driven by
:30:00. > :30:07.instructions from the British people. At the last election, there
:30:07. > :30:11.was only one possible combination that could have led to its stable
:30:11. > :30:21.government. We should always do that in the future. Thank you for
:30:21. > :30:22.
:30:22. > :30:26.being with us today. It is approaching 2:30pm.
:30:26. > :30:30.Good afternoon and welcome to Sunday Politics Scotland. Coming up
:30:30. > :30:32.on the programme: How can we improve the way women are treated
:30:32. > :30:41.by the criminal justice system and stop the revolving door of
:30:41. > :30:45.offenders going in and out of Cornton Vale? I have been here 12
:30:45. > :30:49.years and I am still seeing some goals who are so when I first
:30:49. > :30:53.arrived there who have still never had an adequate opportunity to
:30:53. > :30:57.intervene effectively. And with less than two weeks until
:30:57. > :31:01.voting in the council elections, have you made your decision? I am
:31:01. > :31:05.here in East Renfrewshire looking at the day in a life of a local
:31:05. > :31:08.council to find out wide your vote counts.
:31:08. > :31:11.Cornton Vale women's prison is not fit for purpose and we are locking
:31:11. > :31:16.up too many women who should not be there, undermining efforts to
:31:16. > :31:19.reform those who are a risk to the public. These are the core findings
:31:19. > :31:21.of a commission investigating women in the criminal justice system. We
:31:21. > :31:24.will be talking to the commission chair, the former Lord Advocate
:31:24. > :31:28.Dame Eilish Angiolini in a few minutes, but first I went to
:31:28. > :31:31.Cornton Vale prison earlier this week to meet a group of women who
:31:31. > :31:34.were all serving sentences of more than three years for violent crimes.
:31:34. > :31:41.I asked them for their impressions of how the prison system works and
:31:41. > :31:46.how a jail sentence has affected them and their families. You have
:31:46. > :31:55.not just lost your liberation, you have lost contact with your kids,
:31:55. > :31:58.your secure attachment to your kids has been severed. You have
:31:58. > :32:04.committed a crime and gone to prison and they think, that set,
:32:04. > :32:10.but it's not. It is not until you get a big sentence and a Desiree
:32:10. > :32:15.lot of time to think -- it gives you a lot of time to think. You
:32:15. > :32:20.take a lot of things for granted. It is getting a wake-up call.
:32:20. > :32:25.miss your family and kids and your freedom. It is upsetting when you
:32:25. > :32:31.see them going away. I have got nine brothers and two sisters.
:32:31. > :32:41.would you feel if any of them ended up here? I would be very sad. It is
:32:41. > :32:44.
:32:44. > :32:52.the loneliest place to be. They come in and go back out and
:32:52. > :32:59.reoffend. There are no programmes. Some of the lasses are not strong
:32:59. > :33:08.enough and commit suicide do stupid things to themselves. With the
:33:08. > :33:13.short-term prisoners they are just in and out. People so they should
:33:13. > :33:18.just lock them up and throw away the key. When you get out as you
:33:18. > :33:27.expect to do shortly... I am going out to nothing. I will be homeless
:33:27. > :33:33.when I get out of prison. No money. The rest of my family are broad and
:33:33. > :33:39.so I have not got much support. Basically, I am on my own -- my
:33:39. > :33:45.family are broad. Are you frightened? I am. I am going to
:33:45. > :33:48.struggle with what has happened through my life. I am being
:33:48. > :33:54.punished in here but I am going to punish myself for the rest of my
:33:54. > :34:00.life for what has happened. Do you think you will be back? No chance.
:34:00. > :34:04.Definitely not. My family is too precious to me. It has taken me to
:34:04. > :34:10.come here to realise that. There are a lot of nice people in here.
:34:10. > :34:14.Obviously, everybody makes mistakes in their life so you would not
:34:14. > :34:17.think they were in for what they are in for. Sometimes you do need
:34:17. > :34:20.to give people second chances. The commission findings released
:34:20. > :34:22.this week are the latest in a very long line of reports and
:34:22. > :34:25.investigations which have all recommended radical change at
:34:25. > :34:29.Cornton Vale, much of it informed by the opinions and experiences of
:34:29. > :34:32.the front line staff. In Cornton Vale, I sat down with the governor
:34:32. > :34:39.of the prison, Theresa Medhurst, lead doctor Craig Sayers, chaplain
:34:39. > :34:42.Bill Taylor and Diane Cairns, a mother and child development worker.
:34:42. > :34:50.I began by asking about what they thought were the most common
:34:50. > :34:56.misconceptions about women in prison. I think people are
:34:56. > :35:00.genuinely taken aback at the kinds of lives that folk are living. I
:35:00. > :35:09.think that is because they are preconceptions which may be are
:35:10. > :35:15.fuelled by the media that there are goodies and baddies we are divided
:35:15. > :35:20.along those kinds of access. From a medical point of view, do you think
:35:21. > :35:24.the women should be here? I believe not. The ones who have short
:35:24. > :35:27.sentences do not really achieve anything within the establishment.
:35:27. > :35:31.We do not have time to achieve things. Potentially, it is
:35:31. > :35:36.dangerous, to open up some of their medical issues. When you are
:35:36. > :35:39.dealing with mothers and children, what do you think of some of the
:35:39. > :35:43.key public misconceptions about prison life? That they get
:35:43. > :35:48.everything handed to them on a plate and that things are easy for
:35:48. > :35:53.them. They have now got someone else looking after their children.
:35:53. > :35:57.A lot of these women want to look after the children. What we do like
:35:57. > :36:03.to do that you cannot do at the moment and why can you not direct?
:36:03. > :36:08.Probably the biggest thing is to have more of a focus on those women
:36:08. > :36:12.in here who present the greatest risk to the public, those who are
:36:12. > :36:16.here long term and those whose behaviour is high-risk. At the
:36:16. > :36:22.moment, we have to spend significant periods of time
:36:22. > :36:25.managing women in and out of custody. That is because of the
:36:25. > :36:29.short-term nature of the population. There is very little we can do so
:36:29. > :36:32.it is very difficult for us and if it is difficult for us, how
:36:32. > :36:35.difficult must it be for those women? What indication does that
:36:35. > :36:38.have won a medical basis if what you are saying is that with a lot
:36:39. > :36:42.of these women who have severe problems you do not have time to do
:36:42. > :36:48.anything with them? It has a significant impact. When they
:36:48. > :36:52.arrive, we need to be consistent so we cannot treat gulls to friendly
:36:52. > :36:57.for different postcodes in terms of medication. We have longer term
:36:57. > :37:01.plans to help address addictions, physical health issues, mental
:37:01. > :37:07.health issues, but week require a significant period of time to
:37:07. > :37:13.address those to any satisfactory standard. Lots used drugs not for
:37:13. > :37:17.enjoyment but to plant have dramatic -- traumatic past issues.
:37:17. > :37:21.To open those can of worms and then release them to we Slater is a
:37:21. > :37:24.dangerous thing to do. What kind of work do you do with the women and
:37:25. > :37:27.children? We have women who have never experienced parenting
:37:28. > :37:32.themselves so they do not know what to do with their child. That is
:37:32. > :37:37.difficult. We have women who have had good parenting skills but have
:37:37. > :37:41.gone off the rails for whatever reason. Things have become chaotic.
:37:41. > :37:46.The women who have had nothing, it is about starting from the ground,
:37:46. > :37:49.the very basics. What sort of things? They do not know basics
:37:49. > :37:53.stuff on making up bottles, they cannot follow the instructions
:37:53. > :37:58.because there are literary issues may be. And Parenting is such a
:37:58. > :38:05.difficult job. No one ever actually shows us what to do. The only thing
:38:05. > :38:09.that works is intense parenting work that we can do with families
:38:09. > :38:13.and mothers. Given all we know about early years and their
:38:13. > :38:17.importance, how valuable do you think this particular line of work
:38:17. > :38:24.is in prison? Many a lot of our patients will state their
:38:24. > :38:27.motivation to get a better life, to avoid crime, to avoid drug use, is
:38:27. > :38:32.because of their children. They wish to regain custody of their
:38:32. > :38:40.children. So it goes hand in hand. Confidence is a big thing? I think
:38:40. > :38:44.very often we will find women saying things about themselves that
:38:45. > :38:50.betrays their own self-perception which is invariably very low.
:38:50. > :38:55.People think badly of themselves, their behaviour very often is
:38:55. > :39:00.turned in upon themselves through self-harm and very negative
:39:00. > :39:09.thoughts about their lives. Let alone their behaviour. People do
:39:09. > :39:14.not have a sense of a life worth living. I think in many ways that
:39:14. > :39:19.is what we are seeking to restore, to offer people a different self
:39:19. > :39:27.image. If your objective is to make communities better and safer, does
:39:27. > :39:30.this prison work? This present works in respect of -- this prison
:39:30. > :39:36.works in respect of providing support and input and services to
:39:36. > :39:40.those prisoners who was serving longer sentences. Because most of
:39:40. > :39:44.them are statutory cases, they do have the support on release that
:39:44. > :39:52.means that they are more likely to succeed. In that respect, I would
:39:52. > :39:58.say it back Cornton Vale does work. But it does not work with the short
:39:58. > :40:04.term and high remand population because we can offer very little to
:40:04. > :40:09.women who are coming in here for a short period of time. If that were
:40:09. > :40:12.taken away, where the number of prisoners on remand was reduced, if
:40:12. > :40:18.the number of people coming in on short-term sentences was reduced,
:40:18. > :40:22.we would be able to concentrate our efforts far more effectively to get
:40:22. > :40:26.the women to the stage where they are confident about going back out
:40:26. > :40:31.through those gates and have got a realistic chance of turning their
:40:31. > :40:35.lives around when they are released. What should be the alternatives
:40:35. > :40:42.then, do you think? alternatives should be alternatives
:40:42. > :40:46.within the community because essentially we up -- a lot of the
:40:46. > :40:50.problems come from the communities. We are dealing with their behaviour
:40:50. > :40:54.is within the confines of a present but you are not dealing with the
:40:54. > :40:59.community based problems. You can hear people saying, this is about
:40:59. > :41:04.punishment, these people have to serve time. But in your opinion, is
:41:04. > :41:10.it working in a punishment cents, a medical sense, in any sense at all,
:41:10. > :41:12.for these short-term prisoners? the short-term prisoners, no. It
:41:12. > :41:16.destabilises some of the environments that are stable. For
:41:16. > :41:20.some it is vague brief time-out from extremely chaotic environments
:41:20. > :41:25.outside but not enough time to change their environments. I have
:41:25. > :41:28.been here 12 years and I am still seeing some girls who I saw when I
:41:28. > :41:32.first arrived who on short sentences and has still never had
:41:32. > :41:37.an adequate opportunity to intervene effectively. What do you
:41:37. > :41:39.think about this idea that people are just swirling around the system
:41:39. > :41:45.and not being dealt with and therefore communities are not safe
:41:45. > :41:53.for? That is definitely what I find as well. These are the women that
:41:53. > :41:57.will not engage with services and activities. They tend to opt out a
:41:57. > :42:01.lot of the time because they know it is a short sentence and they
:42:01. > :42:06.will be back out doing whatever it is they want to do. Who are the
:42:06. > :42:11.women in here? The women in here are just women, normal women like
:42:11. > :42:14.you and died. How many judges, sheriffs, come to Cornton Vale to
:42:14. > :42:18.say, let me have a look at the programmes and where women are
:42:18. > :42:26.being held and how effective your programs are? In almost three years,
:42:26. > :42:30.I have not had any asked to come and look around. None. The effect
:42:30. > :42:36.of that? I do not think there is an understanding of what we can do
:42:36. > :42:42.here. I do not think there is an appreciation of the damage that can
:42:42. > :42:47.be done by some of the short-term sentences and how that impacts on
:42:47. > :42:51.our ability to be able to address those with the more complex needs.
:42:51. > :42:53.Thank you. I am joined now by the QC and
:42:53. > :43:01.former Lord Advocate, Dame Ailish Angolini who chaired the Commission
:43:01. > :43:05.on Women Offenders. Thank you for coming in. If we start with the
:43:05. > :43:09.premise that the objective is to cut reoffending and make
:43:09. > :43:18.communities safer, who should be in prison and he shouldn't? Every case
:43:18. > :43:23.differs and the individual factors are important. Human beings... One-
:43:23. > :43:26.size-fits-all will inevitably be crude. Essentially, the interviews
:43:26. > :43:30.which she carried out of their summarise it very neatly. It is
:43:30. > :43:35.those who are a danger to the community, those who have committed
:43:36. > :43:41.very serious crimes and who cannot be left safely in the community.
:43:41. > :43:44.The difficulty is that they are a very small number of the population
:43:44. > :43:48.currently in Cornton Vale. The very large numbers are those committing
:43:48. > :43:51.offences which are serious and the sense that they do disturb the
:43:51. > :43:55.community but require effective management and to be tackled in an
:43:55. > :44:02.effective way and the sentences do not do that. They are not working.
:44:02. > :44:07.What do you think would be more constructive? The commission report
:44:07. > :44:11.outlines what we believe would be a radical reworking of the current
:44:11. > :44:14.system. They are very good alternatives to custody in the
:44:14. > :44:19.community which provide a punishment, paying back to the
:44:19. > :44:24.community. So very often, the community can then benefit from the
:44:24. > :44:28.work of offenders. Also, allowing people to tackle the underlying
:44:28. > :44:33.causes of their behaviour. Many of the women in Cornton Vale have
:44:33. > :44:37.significant mental health problems. Many of them self-harm because they
:44:37. > :44:41.have such self-loathing and low self-esteem. Many also have
:44:41. > :44:47.suffered sexual and physical abuse through their lives. They have had
:44:47. > :44:52.very ghastly child puts, many of them. Many of them are victims of
:44:52. > :44:55.crime. The idea that there's a dichotomy of those who are accused
:44:55. > :45:05.of crime and the victims is artificial. They overlap very
:45:05. > :45:06.
:45:06. > :45:12.We had a statement yesterday from victim Support Scotland. They say a
:45:12. > :45:15.huge percentage of women, there is nowhere else to put them. They
:45:15. > :45:20.support community-based programmes were those sentences of six months
:45:20. > :45:24.or less. When we see the examples of their ligature cell in Cornton
:45:24. > :45:27.Vale, where women and bought her who are a very high risk to
:45:27. > :45:33.themselves are held, one would almost think that the mental health
:45:33. > :45:39.problems of these women justify sectioning them. What sort of
:45:39. > :45:41.people are going in there and can they be effectively treated? Where
:45:41. > :45:46.there are very serious mental health problems, they are dealt
:45:46. > :45:51.with effectively. But there are many women who have what would be
:45:51. > :45:54.conditions that would be treated by primary care, through GPs or
:45:54. > :45:58.psychologists or psychiatrists, but because of their personalities or
:45:58. > :46:05.the chaotic nature of their lifestyles, they tend to self-
:46:05. > :46:10.medicate with drugs and alcohol and do not go to the doctor. They
:46:10. > :46:13.simply sometimes allow a mental health conditions to deteriorate.
:46:13. > :46:18.There needs to be a different nature of programme towards these
:46:18. > :46:24.women. We need to take them out of the officers and into the streets
:46:24. > :46:30.to become Street doctors. That style of thinking also includes the
:46:31. > :46:40.courts. How would a just as harbour or work and would it be a lot more
:46:40. > :46:44.expensive? -- Justice hob. Over 150 different services are provided in
:46:44. > :46:48.Cornton Vale. It is chaos for the prison trying to deal with all
:46:48. > :46:54.these different programmes. There are different types of funding and
:46:54. > :46:56.sometimes there are there for different times. We need a decent,
:46:56. > :47:00.strong courts led by criminal- justice social workers who are
:47:00. > :47:04.working collaboratively. That is not rocket science. It takes
:47:04. > :47:08.imagination and innovation. It should not take a huge amount of
:47:08. > :47:14.money. There are plenty of people working in silos who need to get it
:47:14. > :47:17.together and work collectively. Thank you.
:47:17. > :47:20.There are other options available for dealing with female offenders
:47:20. > :47:23.who currently receive short term sentences. One such project is the
:47:23. > :47:26.218 service in Glasgow. It works to rehabilitate prisoners and stop
:47:26. > :47:36.them re-offending. We agreed not to fully identify the women who told
:47:36. > :47:38.
:47:38. > :47:42.their stories to Kathy Long. For some women who have been inside
:47:42. > :47:46.Cornton Vale, prison has never prevented them from returning to
:47:46. > :47:51.crime. It's never did me any good or I would not be still be going in
:47:51. > :47:58.and out. I just got a five day detox in prison. That was really
:47:58. > :48:02.hard. 218 is an alternative to jail for those who have committed minor
:48:02. > :48:07.offences - shoplifting, breach of the peace or failing to pay a fine.
:48:07. > :48:12.The women here will treat their addictions. They will also attend
:48:12. > :48:15.workshops and classes to give them skills and education. Being sent to
:48:15. > :48:23.a place like this, you are dealing with a drug problems, defending,
:48:23. > :48:28.dealing with everything. This is more appropriate. There is always
:48:28. > :48:37.somebody there to talk to you. If you're having a bad day, there's
:48:37. > :48:42.always someone there. So what is at the soft option? At 218 is a much
:48:42. > :48:47.harder option then prison. When you explore that with a woman that is
:48:47. > :48:51.about to come to 218, they have to do the work and do the programme. A
:48:51. > :48:57.lot of that programmes about looking at themselves. 218 can cost
:48:57. > :49:01.half as much as a prison sentence for the same crime. The rate of
:49:01. > :49:09.reoffending is significantly reduced. I would not offend after
:49:09. > :49:14.coming out of 218. There is no reason. It actually works. You feel
:49:14. > :49:18.like a failure, but this place makes you feel like you have a
:49:18. > :49:25.chance to get right again. Joining me in the studio is the
:49:25. > :49:31.Conservative MSP, Margaret Mitchell. You also the convenor of the
:49:31. > :49:36.Hollywood equal-opportunities committee when it looked as this.
:49:36. > :49:39.You'll be basing your opinions on evidence and expert witness opinion.
:49:39. > :49:43.All the evidence suggests that sentences of six months or less did
:49:43. > :49:47.not work and all the expert opinion seems to say the same thing. So why
:49:47. > :49:53.have the Tories and the Labour Party set their face against
:49:53. > :49:58.getting good of prison sentences of six months or less.
:49:58. > :50:00.It is very much horses-for-courses. What we discovered in the report we
:50:01. > :50:04.did and the equal opportunities committee was that in Cornton Vale,
:50:04. > :50:11.there were far too many people on remand, 70% of which were never
:50:11. > :50:14.going to get a prison sentence. But time and effort, the warders, the
:50:14. > :50:18.people who would be doing Rehabilitation, all their effort
:50:18. > :50:22.was going on looking after these people. We heard about people who
:50:22. > :50:26.had mental health issues. They were not being dealt with. 1% should
:50:26. > :50:32.have been hospitalised. They're still there. Call one reason or
:50:32. > :50:36.other, people do end up on short- term sentences in Cornton Vale. You
:50:36. > :50:39.might look at alternatives, but when you run right of every single
:50:39. > :50:43.alternative you can go to, then there will be, for one reason or
:50:43. > :50:48.another, prisoners there on short- term sentences. Quite frankly,
:50:48. > :50:50.they're getting no support, no help and no resources were given to them.
:50:50. > :50:55.That is where we are fundamentally criticising that nothing is done
:50:55. > :51:00.with these people. Even having someone for one month or two months,
:51:00. > :51:04.think of the things you can do it in terms of the dressing literacy,
:51:04. > :51:08.numeracy and sometimes, from the 218 report as well, speech and a
:51:08. > :51:14.lack of confidence to communicate. All of these things have been known
:51:14. > :51:18.since 2009, when be completed a report. Nothing has been done. The
:51:18. > :51:22.political will has not been there. But the expert opinion is that you
:51:22. > :51:26.can deal with those things, but you better to deal with them not in a
:51:26. > :51:30.prison environment for a few months, or even in a situation where it
:51:30. > :51:34.could be medically dangerous to try to teats -- treat them in that time
:51:34. > :51:38.scale, but to take them into the community and a structured, long-
:51:38. > :51:42.term programmes their. The concern would be but this is just political
:51:42. > :51:50.posturing and lazy thinking to say that you can put these women in
:51:50. > :51:53.prison for six months or less. How did you respond to that? We are not
:51:53. > :51:58.saying put people in prison for less than six months. We are more
:51:58. > :52:01.than happy to look at the alternatives. If you go back to
:52:02. > :52:07.that 2009 report, we praise to the high heavens the work being done in
:52:07. > :52:13.the 218 Centre in Glasgow. We pointed out that the Scottish
:52:13. > :52:21.Government in Edinburgh would love another 218 centre. We said we
:52:21. > :52:27.needed to redress romance. -- address a wee man. There's nothing
:52:27. > :52:35.substantially different in that report but was known in 2009.
:52:35. > :52:40.you create -- agree that it should increase the six months? There
:52:40. > :52:46.should not be a presumption. We should look at each case on its own
:52:46. > :52:50.merits. If there is any element of a potential problem to public
:52:50. > :52:56.safety, then public safety must come first. There is no question
:52:56. > :52:59.there. Beyond that, there is a whole list of interventions that
:52:59. > :53:04.should be put in place and the political will has not been there
:53:04. > :53:08.to do that. If we come back to the point about
:53:08. > :53:11.the prison governor, where we were talking about the judges and how
:53:11. > :53:19.they and the sheriffs had not been to Cornton Vale. What you think
:53:19. > :53:24.about that?'s do report mentions the judiciary specifically.
:53:24. > :53:33.It is important that the judges have confident the alternatives of
:53:33. > :53:35.custody and that the community have that confidence as well. It is very
:53:35. > :53:39.important that this new service that we are recommending measures
:53:40. > :53:43.the impact and can actually demonstrate that reoffending is
:53:43. > :53:47.reduced. Then, the community and the judges will have more
:53:47. > :53:53.confidence. So far as the Conford - - judges are concerned, their
:53:53. > :53:58.training requires to be supported and that the sea and visit prisons
:53:58. > :54:01.regularly. They should be out there. They should be understanding of
:54:01. > :54:05.what they're sending people to. They should be visiting the
:54:05. > :54:13.community alternatives as part of their training to understand what
:54:13. > :54:19.is available. Then, they can actually influence what is working.
:54:19. > :54:23.These are just two of the reports - there are seven substantial ones.
:54:23. > :54:27.You could argue that nothing has changed. What will change because
:54:27. > :54:34.of your report? Like any report, it could gather
:54:34. > :54:37.dust and the words on a shelf. I recommend a Cabinet Secretary to
:54:37. > :54:41.report in six months of what he is going to do. There is a political
:54:41. > :54:46.will and a recognition of it. This gives the politician and the
:54:46. > :54:51.Government the tools to restructure the way this is all done.
:54:51. > :54:57.Thank you. We did ask for the Justice
:54:57. > :55:02.Secretary to be here, he says it is vital that we find a more effective
:55:02. > :55:04.way to deal with women offenders and 21st century Scotland. I will
:55:04. > :55:06.consider this report in detail before making a formal response and
:55:06. > :55:08.summertime. And now here's the news, with
:55:08. > :55:11.Andrew Kerr. The American tycoon Donald Trump is
:55:11. > :55:14.due to fly in to Aberdeen Airport this afternoon. The entrepreneur is
:55:14. > :55:16.giving evidence to a Holyrood committee on Wednesday about
:55:16. > :55:21.renewable energy. He's objecting to a planned offshore wind development
:55:21. > :55:23.near the site of his �1 billion golf resort in Aberdeenshire. Mr
:55:23. > :55:29.Trump claims Scotland is committing financial suicide by creating a
:55:29. > :55:31.windfarm landscape. Officials in the Dominican Republic
:55:31. > :55:34.say the convicted Glasgow-born fraudster, Michael Brown, who was
:55:34. > :55:40.once a major donor to the Liberal Democrats, is being extradited to
:55:40. > :55:44.Britain. He's understood to be on a flight to Madrid, where he's
:55:44. > :55:47.expected to be handed over to the British authorities.
:55:47. > :55:51.Having enough money is not a high priority for Scots, according to
:55:51. > :55:54.Oxfam. A poll carried out for the charity found housing and health
:55:54. > :55:57.were more important to people. Oxfam says this suggests most Scots
:55:57. > :56:03.want enough to provide for their families and that economic measures
:56:03. > :56:13.like GDP are part of a failed economic model.
:56:13. > :56:13.
:56:13. > :56:17.And now here's the weather with Another afternoon of sunshine and
:56:17. > :56:22.showers. The best of the driest conditions will be across the Outer
:56:22. > :56:28.Hebrides. Nearly everywhere is at risk of brain. There are cloudier
:56:28. > :56:32.conditions across the East with lighter showers. Not feeling too
:56:32. > :56:35.Babbs with a rise of 12 Celsius. That's the news and weather, our
:56:35. > :56:41.next update is just after 6.30pm this evening. I'll now hand you
:56:41. > :56:43.With the local election campaign underway, the major parties have
:56:43. > :56:46.been voicing their concerns about low turnout. We sent Gilly
:56:46. > :56:56.Mathieson to East Renfrewshire, one of the most politically engaged
:56:56. > :57:01.
:57:01. > :57:10.electorates in Scotland to find out why your votes count.
:57:10. > :57:13.I am one of a team of 34 or who looks after 475 kilometres.
:57:13. > :57:18.I am looking out for a glittering offences.
:57:18. > :57:24.We collect glass and waste paper for recycling.
:57:24. > :57:30.Rhodes, community safety, waste and education are some of the policies
:57:30. > :57:32.set at Hollywood but delivered by a local council. These final-year
:57:32. > :57:37.students believe many voters are confused about who is responsible
:57:37. > :57:42.for providing them. People can often get confused about
:57:42. > :57:45.who is running for what and who is standing for what.
:57:45. > :57:48.People don't vote in council elections because they do not
:57:48. > :57:53.understand their own counsel's play in their area. They still think
:57:53. > :57:56.there are decisions come from Government.
:57:56. > :58:03.Part of their remit is to promote health. People think that is the
:58:03. > :58:07.job of the NHS. Scotland's councils spend �18.7
:58:07. > :58:12.billion of our money. In East Renfrewshire, almost 20% of its
:58:12. > :58:22.budget goes on social care services like this, with 11% on the
:58:22. > :58:23.
:58:23. > :58:28.environment and half of its budget With polling day less than two
:58:28. > :58:34.weeks away, there are no visible signs of an election campaign in
:58:34. > :58:37.this suburb. There is only one campaign going on and that is the
:58:37. > :58:41.national campaign. I have not seen any campaigning and the local
:58:41. > :58:46.elections. It is almost as if they're not here.
:58:46. > :58:51.People are being bombarded with the media, papers, radio, television
:58:51. > :58:55.and it is either UK or Scotland. They're missing the issues
:58:56. > :58:58.altogether. With the independence referendum
:58:58. > :59:02.expected in 2014, the Paul is an important test of political
:59:02. > :59:06.strength. You have this big national campaign
:59:06. > :59:11.with the parties trying to get on top and then small local campaigns
:59:11. > :59:15.about small local issues. A two- speed campaign.
:59:15. > :59:24.Whatever your reasons for voting on third May, there is a lot at stake
:59:24. > :59:29.for the parties and for the delivery of you are local services.