The SNP Scottish Devolved Administration are no strangers to dubious activities over the course of their 11 years in office. In fact, they seem to be rather good at deflecting away issues quite a bit themselves if the recent investigations into the party and their conduct are anything to go by. However, they don’t seem to be as competent in dealing with crime, policing and prisons.
There are currently around 8,000 people behind bars in Scotland’s prisons and with this being projected to rise to around 8,700 this year it’s clear to see that the Scottish Prison Service is at breaking point.
Worryingly, the head of the Scottish Prison Service, Teresa Medhurst, has stated in the BBC’s Disclosure that prisons were reaching a “tipping point” and they may have to say “enough is enough, we cannot take any more”. She has also suggested that emergency powers may be needed to release inmates early to make room for more.
This is what Scottish justice has come to: You broke the law, but don’t worry we’ll let you out early because we don’t have the room to keep you locked up.
This is just another prime example of the incompetence of the Scottish Nationalist Party and their woeful inability to manage any of Scotland’s public services. Many of Scotland’s prisons are Victorian relics, no longer fit for purpose and in dire need of repair and renovation to ensure they remain fit for purpose. Add to this the spiralling costs and continuing delays to the new prisons for Glasgow and The Highlands and it looks like there won’t be a feasible solution to this situation any time soon.
This prison population crisis also highlights the total failure by the SNP to tackle the rising levels of crime on Scotland’s streets. The SNP have continued to cut funding to Police Scotland which has put our ability to tackle crime on the frontline at a huge disadvantage. Police presence was always the first and best deterrent for many would-be criminals. Without a proportionate level of policing Scotland’s streets have become a free for all for violence, theft and drugs.
Now when the police do bring criminals to justice it’s a worrying state of affairs that many of them will not face a consequence proportionate to their offences purely because we do not have the facilities to punish them accordingly.
Unionist Clubs Scotland Chairman, Robert Elliot stated “The SNP simply do not have a response to the rising crime rates and overpopulation of prisons in Scotland. This is just another chapter to their saga of failure and mismanagement of public services during their time in power. The people of Scotland deserve better. We deserve the right for our streets and towns to feel safe and to know that when criminals are brought to justice they will remain where they need to be for the greater good.”
Scotland has been in constant decline since the SNP’s rise to power in 2007. Year after year we hear more empty promises, year after year we get the same nonsense about independence and year after year we, the hard working people of Scotland, get stung to fuel the morbid fantasies of a minority who live in a dream world.
It’s time we change that. It’s time we claim back Scotland’s future from the SNP.