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The Scottish Prisons Service (SPS) has several aims including holding those serving a prison sentence securely in custody as well as looking to support offenders so they don’t re-offend on release.

Scottish Prison Service aims:

• to protect the public by maintaining secure custody
• to humanely care for offenders
• to reduce re-offending
• to offer value for money for the taxpayer

Scottish prisons

• Prisons such as HMP Perth hold a mix of long and short-term adult male offenders, from those serving life sentences to those on remand - held waiting for trial.
• HMYOI Polmont is a young offenders institute, for offenders aged 16 to 21 years.
• There are YOIs at HMP Grampian, HMP Perth and HMP YOI Stirling.
• HMP and YOI Stirling is Scotland’s women only prison although there are also Community Custody units located in Glasgow and Dundee.
• HMP Castle Huntly is Scotland’s only ‘open prison’ where low risk, long-term offenders complete the final part of their sentence.
• Two prisons, HMP Kilmarnock and Scotland’s newest prison HMP Addiewell, are privately operated.

Changes to Scottish prison life

Historically, prisons were places where extreme forms of punishment were prevalent. Today's prisons are still very strict environments. Offenders have little privacy and no freedom. There are many restrictions on their lives.

However, today's prisons focus more on education and rehabilitation. Modern prisons allow outside visitors and encourage offenders to educate themselves. For example, there are creative writing classes and writers can come in to help offenders to develop their talents.

The hope is that, upon release, offenders will have the knowledge and skills to enable them to find work outside and therefore increase the chances of them not re-offending.

In 2019, the Presumption against short prison sentences (PASS) was extended from three months to 12 months. This means that the courts are encouraged but not forced to consider alternative punishments or disposals for offenders who may otherwise have been sentenced to a period of up to 12 months in prison.

Effectiveness of prisons

There is no one measure which can be used to decide whether prisons meet their aims. However, it could be argued that few prisoners escape, prisoners are generally well cared for and that overall, Scottish prisons provide value for money.

On the other hand, most prisons are full to overcrowded. In 2023, the Scottish Public Health Observatory reported that there was an average of 7,500 people in prison every day within an official prison capacity of 7725. (Source: Public Health Information for Scotland). This means that too often prisoners cannot get the support required to avoid reoffending on release.

In 2018-19, Scottish government figures showed the reconviction rate, which is the percentage of offenders who are reconvicted in a year, was 28.3%.