Insider [EVENTREPORT] COMMENT INBOX & SOAPBOX DIARY ON THE DESK upcoming events


Willow service manager Kirsty Pate addressing delegates


month’s election. Whether a change would make much difference is open to question with the wording of existing legislation “about as per- missive as you can get”, according to Dr Cyrus Tata, director of the Centre for Law, Crime and Justice at the University of Strathclyde. “Even if we go to 12 months,


running across the country to share blueprints of what the five units are expected to look like, while women in custody are also being consulted. Locations have yet to be chosen, though the criteria will, for instance, include not being too close to a pub to avoid the potential hassle women and staff might get. “It’s our vision that children will be able to come in and stay with their mum overnight, that the mum might be able to see them off to school or take them to school on Monday morning,” she said. “Not everybody all of the time but we want the community custody units to be about rebuilding families. I say rebuilding but perhaps ‘build- ing’ is the right word as well because only about a third of women who come into custody actually have custody of their children. Around half of them have children but only a third have custody.”


Little is likely to change, how-


ever, without a shift in sentencing. A consultation on extending the presumption against short prison sentences was carried out before this


which is more or less consistent with summary powers with a couple of exceptions – in other words, they can’t often give 13 months – this caveat [in the legislation] still allows the sentencer to say, ‘I don’t consider anything else to be appropriate, therefore you’re getting nine months, end of story’; it will still happen,” said Tata. Te “sky wouldn’t fall in” if certain offences were made “normally non-impris- onable”, the professor of law and criminal justice added. “Unless we really grasp decision- making about who goes into prison then we could easily be back here in 15 to 20 years’ time with an increased number of women in prison and indeed men,” said Tata. He labelled the abolition of auto- matic early release for all prisoners serving over four years “the most cynical legislation I’ve ever seen”, which “knowingly increases the numbers in prison”. Meanwhile, a renewed empha- sis on rehabilitative work within prisons, coupled with squeezed community justice services, risks “unintended consequences” as sen- tencers potentially consider custody the best option for reasons other than the offence committed. “We should exclude rehabilitation


or trying to do good for someone as a ground for passing a sentence of imprisonment,” added Tata. “I don’t mean to say that prison should not be rehabilitative, I abso- lutely think that it should... but that needs to be enveloped within this broader sentencing principle, which says sentences of imprison- ment should be reserved for serious offending.” ⌞


: DIGITAL SKILLS FOR GRADUATES 2 JUNE, EDINBURGH


The aim of Holyrood’s Digital Skills for Graduates event is to bring together policymakers, universities, colleges and businesses in order to examine what is currently being done to address the digital skills gap and what opportunities there are for collaborative work in the future.


LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY 8 JUNE, GLASGOW


Join us at Holyrood’s Learning Through Technology event as we take a practical approach to how we can enhance and enrich digital learning and teaching across the curriculum to give our children and young people the skills to succeed in the modern world.


: HOMELESSNESS IN SCOTLAND 14 JUNE, EDINBURGH


Although Scotland has led on homelessness with the abolition of priority need and statistics showing statutory applications falling, big challenges remain. How can we work together to tackle and prevent homelessness in Scotland while supporting homeless people and those at risk?


: THE JOURNEY TO FAIRNESS: WIDENING


ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION 15 JUNE, EDINBURGH


This event aims to help universities and others interested in widening access and social mobility to reflect on and act upon the findings of the Commission on Widening Access.


: LIFE AFTER DOMESTIC ABUSE 21 JUNE, GLASGOW


What are the barriers to rebuilding the lives of survivors of domestic abuse? How can we work together to reduce the long term strain on individuals and services, both in policy and practical terms? This event aims to bring together key stakeholders in order to learn from best practice and discuss how to provide long-term support and assistance to abuse survivors in Scotland.


More at www.holyrood.com/events 23 May 2016 www.holyrood.com 41


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