Concerns Raised Over Sex Offender Rehabilitation Programmes

A new report on Dumfries prison raises concerns that sex offenders are not undergoing rehabilitation programmes because they deny having committed a crime.

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dr Andrew McLellan, also warns that keeping sex offenders and other prisoners separate occupies much of the available time for managing the prison.

Elsewhere in the report he praises both the pre-release programme for long-term prisoners and relationships between staff and inmates, but does comment that the prison's design is complex and causes problems.

"The problem of preparation for release is particularly acute with regard to those sex offenders who are held in Dumfries. It has been stated in previous HMCIP reports on Peterhead that sex offenders receive the worst preparation for release, despite being those prisoners of whom the public are most likely to be afraid," Dr McLellan said.

"In Dumfries the situation is particularly alarming. Since those prisoners, unlike most in Peterhead, do not admit their guilt, they do not prepare for their release in programmes designed to address their offending behaviour.

"So, when their sentence is ended, it is quite possible that nothing will have been done in prison to encourage them to change anything," he added.

In response to the report, Conservative justice spokesperson Bill Aitken called for a reassessment of rehabilitation provision.

"There is a difficulty for the Scottish Prison Service in that these individuals are denying their guilt, but I do think we have to consider putting all sex offenders on these programmes, irrespective of those denials. These programmes have proved valuable at Peterhead and there is a very strong case for making them compulsory.

"The frightening thing is that people who have not completed these programmes will be released in any case, because of the Scottish Government's unrelenting drive to empty our jails. So if we think the situation is worrying now, under the SNP's soft-touch Scotland it is almost certain to get worse," he added.

(GK/JM)