Prisoners nearing the end of their sentences may be released as early as next week to halt the spread of coronavirus in Scotland’s jails.<\/p>\n
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf told\u00a0The Nine<\/a>\u00a0staff absences due to the rate of infection had put a major strain on the Scottish Prison Service.<\/p>\n Mr Yousaf described the situation as “increasingly alarming”.<\/p>\n He added: “I cannot envisage a time when we do not release prisoners to make that a safer environment.<\/p>\n “So I am actively looking at the options we have to do that.”<\/p>\n The justice secretary said options included home detention curfews, where prisoners were released and monitored by electronic tagging instead.<\/p>\n He said: “But we may need to look at what sort of powers we need to do some sort of emergency release as well.<\/p>\n “That is all being proactively explored as we speak.”<\/p>\n Asked about the timescale, Mr Yousaf said: “It could happened as early as next week.<\/p>\n “I am not committing to that but, certainly, the situation is increasingly alarming, for me increasingly concerning.<\/p>\n “I would be surprised if in one way, shape or form we did not look to release prisoners and do that relatively urgently.”<\/p>\n Mr Yousaf stressed the authorities would adopt a measured approach.<\/p>\n He added: “To reassure the public this would be done with the appropriate risk assessments in place.<\/p>\n “We are talking about people who would potentially be toward the end of their sentence anyway.”<\/p>\n Earlier the SPS\u00a0published updated information<\/a>\u00a0on its website for families and visitors in light of the pandemic.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Relatively urgently’<\/h2>\n