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The emergency early release of nearly 1,000 prisoners from Scotland’s jails will get under way on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Dozens of inmates are to be freed at the start of a process that will continue until next April. <\/p>\n
The latest releases come almost a week after MSPs voted by 66 to 51 to approve the plan. <\/p>\n
Scotland’s prison population reached a new record high of 8,431 last Wednesday and an estimated 990 inmates are scheduled to be released early in successive waves over the coming six months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Only inmates serving sentences of less than four years will be eligible. Prisoners convicted of sex offences and domestic abuse will be excluded. <\/p>\n
The Scottish government says it is necessary to ensure the safety of staff and prisoners. <\/p>\n
Opposition parties say it is the result of mismanagement of the criminal justice system by SNP ministers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The prison population fluctuates daily but has repeatedly hit new highs in recent weeks, according to the Scottish Prison Service (SPS).<\/p>\n
This rise in numbers comes despite the early release of hundreds of inmates to free up space.<\/p>\n
More than 300 people, half of whom were serving sentences for violent crimes, were freed in February and March after prison bosses warned they could not take any more arrivals.<\/p>\n
In addition to the record numbers inside Scotland’s jails, the SPS said that more than 120 people on custodial sentences had recently been managed in the community through home detention curfews.<\/p>\n
Scotland’s prisons were designed to hold 7,805 inmates, meaning they are now accommodating more than 600 additional people – enough to fill another prison the size of HMP & YOI Grampian or HMP Shotts.<\/p>\n
The Prisoners (Early Release) Scotland Act 2025 came into law earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n The act changed the point of release for all eligible short-term prisoners from 50% to 40% of their sentence.<\/p>\n That provided some relief for prisons in the face of overcrowding but populations have since continued to rise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n