Alternatives of Prisin

Question 1

Fines

Answer 1

Fines are the most common sentence. The offender must pay money to the court. Fines are criticised for impacting poor
offender more than rich ones.
Maximum fines set by law:
* Justice of the peace court – up to £2,500
* Sheriff court (summary) – up to £10,000
* Sheriff court (solemn) and High Court –
no maximum except any set for the
particular crime.
Offenders who don’t keep up with
payments can be taken back to court and
given another sentence instead.
But the Scottish Sentencing Council
says:
* Judges will take into account how
much the offender can pay.
* The aim is for the fine to have an
equal impact on offenders with
different financial circumstances.
* It should be a hardship but should
not force the offender below a
reasonable ‘subsistence’ level.

Question 2

CPO

Answer 2

Community Payback Order.
Aims:
* to rehabilitate the offender,
reducing the likelihood that
they will reoffend.
* for the offender to make
amends for their crimes,
repairing their relationship
with their community.
People given a CPO are ordered to:
* carry out between 20 and 300 hours
of unpaid work in the community
They may also be required to:
* attend regular appointments with a
criminal justice social worker
* pay money to their victims
* attend a rehabilitation or treatment
programme
* stay at a particular address.

Question 3

RLO

Answer 3

Restriction of Liberty Order.
Aims:
* to reduce the offender’s
opportunities for criminal
activity.
* to protect the community
from anti-social behaviour.
* allow offenders to retain
employment and family
relationships, to help reduce
reoffending.
A Restriction of Liberty Order (RLO)
requires an offender to be restricted:
* to a specified place for a maximum
period of 12 hours per day up to a
maximum of 12 months
and/or
* from a specified place or places for 24
hours per day up to 12 months.
The offender’s compliance with the order
is monitored by an electronic ankle tag.
Electronic tags are also used to monitor
offenders released from prison to serve the
rest of their custodial sentences in the
community on Home Detention Curfews.

Question 4

Effective Alternatives to Prison

Answer 4

• Rehabilitation
• Reparation
• Minimise impact on
  offenders’ children

Question 5

Rehabilitation

Answer 5

• RLOs and CPOs give offenders
  support to live in their own
  communities without
  committing crime.
• Do not interrupt positives
  (job, home, family) that can
  help offender avoid crime.
• CPOs are an opportunity for
  offenders to learn new skills.
  Example: reconviction rates are
  lower than for custody
  (prison):
  25% for CPOs
  29% for RLOs
  40% for custody

Question 6

Reparation

Answer 6

• CPOs give offenders an
  opportunity to make amends
  by doing positive work in their
  community.
• According to a 2022 Scottish
  survey, more than three-
  quarters of the public think
  CPO unpaid work improves
  communities.

Question 7

Minimise impact on children

Answer 7

Minimise impact on offenders’ children
– by not separating them as prison
would.
This could reduce the risk that
offenders’ children will engage in
offending behaviour as a result of the
trauma of having a parent in prison.
Example: Children of prisoners
are 3 times more
likely to engage in
antisocial and
offending behaviour.

Question 8

Ineffective Alternatives to Prison

Answer 8

• Difficult to enforce
  effectively
• Don’t protect the public
  effectively
• Not severe enough to
  deter potential criminals
  or give victims justice

Question 9

Difficult to enforce effectively

Answer 9

• Technical problems with electronic tags mean some offenders breach
  the rules and either go undetected or claim the tag was faulty.
• 1,136 breached Restriction of Liberty Orders in 2019-2020
• More than 24,000 CPOs have been breached in the last 9 years
• 20% of fines issued 2018-21 have not been paid (£7 million)

Question 10

Don’t protect the public

Answer 10

• Don’t remove offenders from the
  community as prison does.
• In 2017, Craig McClelland was
  stabbed to death in Paisley by
  James Wright who had been
  “unlawfully at large” for five
  months after cutting off his tag
  (HDC after prison).

Question 11

Not severe enough to deter or to give victim a justice

Answer 11

• Sean Hogg was 17 when he
  raped a 13-year-old girl in
  Dalkeith Country Park on
  multiple occasions in 2018.
• Hogg was given a CPO with
  270 hours unpaid work rather
  than 4-5 years in prison
  because of his young age.
• The victim was extremely
  distressed by the sentence.