THE vast majority of victims of crime were kept in the dark about hundreds of criminals being released early, a leading charity has claimed.
Victim Support Scotland said that fewer than 20 people were informed through the victim notification scheme that offenders in their cases were being freed early to tackle overcrowded jails.
It condemned the lack of action taken to ensure that victims were informed, despite the potential risk to their safety when 477 inmates were released early.
The Scottish Government has said victims of crime who were signed up to notification schemes were automatically notified of the early release of a prisoner in connection with their case.
But Kate Wallace, chief executive of Victim Support Scotland, said: ‘Victims had to come forward. They were not proactively (contacted).
Chief Executive of Victim Support Scotland, Kate Wallace, says victims were kept in the dark about criminals being released early
‘The members of the victim notification scheme, as far as I understand it, was less than 20 people. It shows you there is a really poor uptake to the victim notification scheme.
‘There was an independent review published over a year ago and we are still waiting on Scottish Government to respond to that. They need to do that urgently because that scheme is not fit for purpose, it is very clear in that independent review that it is not and it requires significant overhaul.
‘The onus was on victims to come forward and ask and many of them – the vast majority of them – were not aware that was the situation they were in and they couldn’t remember if they were members of the victim notification scheme or not.
‘In some cases, it has been many years since they signed up to that scheme or not and were asked about it and it is at the most traumatising period that they are asked at the moment. That really does have to change going forward.’
Last week, John Swinney said the early release of 477 prisoners has not solved the problems facing Scotland’s overcrowded jails and that further action is now being considered.
Ms Wallace said the proposal was always a ‘short term fix’ but said she was ‘very disappointed’ that it had done so little to tackle the problem.
She said that lessons have not been learned from the early release of prisoners during the Covid pandemic, when 40 per cent of those released reoffended within six months.
Almost 500 prisoners were released early to ease overcrowding in Scottish prisons but it has not solved the problem
Ms Wallace told BBC Good Morning Scotland: ‘It didn’t work then and it hasn’t worked now. We were really hoping that the Scottish Government would have learned lessons from that Covid release programme and approached it differently but sadly they didn’t and this is the result.’
She said a wholescale review is required to ‘prioritise victim safety’ and added that Victim Support Scotland would have ‘serious concerns’ about any move to extend the approach to longer-term prisoners.
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: ‘The SNP freed almost 500 prisoners before they’d served their sentences yet deliberately kept victims in the dark.
‘The justice secretary had the audacity to come to parliament to claim that victims’ rights would be respected. We now know these were hollow words.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Emergency release was a short-term measure for eligible prisoners who were within 180 days of their scheduled release – around 65 per cent of those eligible were within 90 days.
‘We made arrangements during the emergency release process so that victims could access information about the release of the prisoner in their case, if they wanted to receive it. We are well aware that not everyone wants to receive this.
‘Victims already registered with the two Victim Notification Schemes were automatically informed. We also worked with victim support organisations, including Victim Support Scotland, to create new arrangements that enable them to quickly obtain the information from the Scottish Prison Service on behalf of victims, or for members of the public to contact the prison service direct.’
