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Sex offenders 'released without treatment'
Some of Scotland’s most dangerous sex offenders continue to pose a risk to the public after their release because few have undergone treatment to control their urges, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has warned.
Nearly a quarter of those freed last year were recalled to jail after failing to comply with the conditions for their release Photo: PA
By Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor 10:47AM GMT 17 Nov 2010
Brigadier Hugh Monro said it was “difficult to see” how inmates at Peterhead Prison in Aberdeenshire, which houses the country’s worst rapists and paedophiles, were prepared for a “crime-free life”. Only 48 inmates last year completed programmes designed to reform their behaviour and too many are unwilling to address their perversions, he concluded.
Nearly a quarter of those freed last year were recalled to jail after failing to comply with the conditions for their release and few were transferred to an open prison beforehand to better prepare them for life on the outside. The annual report on the prison was published today after it emerged 175 sex offenders have failed to notify the authorities of their whereabouts so far this year, 30 per cent more than in 2009.
Opposition politicians called for immediate action to tackle the issues raised in the “deeply troubling” report. Peterhead Prison holds about 300 of Scotland’s long-term male sex offenders. But Brig Monro found that 71 had been sent back to prison after being freed for breaching the terms of their release.
“I recommend that greater efforts are made to ensure the maximum number of prisoners attend programmes to address offending behaviour and that all without exception are far more comprehensively prepared for release than is presently the case,” he concluded. “A number of prisoners refuse to participate, but in reality the numbers are constrained by the lack of places and this is another reason why progression through the prison system for sex offenders can be so slow.”
He recommended a review takes place for why so many of the prison’s inmates are being released, only to be recalled to custody. Only 48 completed the core Sex Offenders Treatment Programme (SOTP) in 2009/10, he found, meaning “many are released back into the community at the completion of their sentences without having addressed” their problems.
The fact so few prisoners are transferred to “less secure conditions”, such as an open prison, prior to their release means it is difficult to assess the risk they pose to the public and increases the change they will reoffend, he said. Peterhead is due to be replaced by HMP Grampian on the same site in 2014. It was described in the report as a “journey into the past because of the poor condition of the 122-year-old building.
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said more inmates are being transferred to Glenochil Prison in Clackmannshire, on which extra money has been spent. He said this will “concentrate efforts” on ensuring Peterhead’s remaining prisoners get the help they need. The SNP is also examining sending more inmates to Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison “to allow more community access”.
