Choice versus crisis: how Scotland could transform thinking about prisons and punishment

Abstract

Abstract In late 2007, and in the face of a high imprisonment rate and unmitigated growth in the prison population over the past decade, Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Justice launched an independent commission to consider the use of imprisonment in Scotland and to raise the public profile of this issue. The Scottish Prisons Commission, chaired by former Scottish First Minister, the Rt Hon Henry McLeish, and comprised a mixed group of criminal justice and civic leaders. The Commission reported in July 2008.