SCOTLAND'S top public spending watchdog today urged ministers to produce "clear plans" for coping with a growing prison population.
The call came from Auditor General Robert Black in a report that warned plans to increase prison capacity, including building three new jails, may not be enough if present trends continue.
Scotland's prison population, has risen by 20 per cent sin
ce 2000 and is likely to rise by the same again by 2016, said Mr Black's report.
His report also discloses that while nearly £300 million has been spent in recent years on improving conditions in Scotland's jails, conditions have improved but the rising prison population meant this made little difference to overcrowding.
Nearly half of prisoners share cells, and around a fifth share cells designed for one person.
Eleven of the country's 14 prisons are overcrowded – the exceptions are Perth, Shotts and Peterhead – and Aberdeen is the most overcrowded of all, with a 158 per cent occupancy rate.
The report contains a raft of recommendations for both the government and the prison service. The prison service should assess the risk of legal challenges from inmates held in crowded conditions, collect information to give a clearer picture of prisoner activities, and do more to analyse costs to find efficiencies.
The Scottish Government should seek ways of making future projections more accurate, and produce "clear plans setting out action to be taken" to accommodate future prisoner numbers.
Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill said the Holyrood administration was already addressing many of the recommendations as a matter of "urgency".
The full article contains 261 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
