Scottish Prisons Commission Meeting
1st Meeting: 24 October 2007 - Scotsman Hotel, Edinburgh
Attendees: Henry McLeish (Chair)
Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill (introductory message only)
Chief Constable David Strang
Geraldine Gammell
Sheriff Alistair Duff
Richard Jeffrey
Lesley Riddoch
Annette Sharp, Secretary, Prisons Commission
Iain Harron, Prisons Commission Secretariat
Jane Richardson, Parole and Life Sentence Review Division, Scottish Government
Apologies: Josephine McLean and Dr Karin Dotter-Schiller
Welcome and Introductions
1. The Chair welcomed the newly appointed members and invited the Cabinet Secretary to make his introductory message to the Commission. The Cabinet Secretary thanked the members for accepting appointment and explained the reasoning and need for setting up the Prisons Commission. He acknowledged that the Commission had been set a challenging remit within a tight timeline but looked forward to reading their recommendations in June 2008.
Ways of Working
2. The Commission agreed the draft Code of Conduct for members.
3. Members agreed a handling strategy for dealing with any media enquiries and correspondence which the Commission received.
4. The members discussed various ways about how best to engage with the public, given that part of their remit is to raise the public profile of this issue. One area which the members agreed will be useful in terms of establishing an interface with the public was the planned set-up of the Commission's own website.
Custodial Sentences and Weapons ( Scotland) Act 2007
5. Background information was provided on the current early release arrangements under the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 and the new regime proposed under the Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Act 2007 (CSaW).
6. Members were reminded that assessing the impact of the custodial sentences measures in the 2007 Act was one of the Commission's early key objectives. While it was acknowledged that CSaW was an early priority for the Commission's focus it was recognised that all three key work-streams of the Commission's remit could effectively run in parallel.
Work Plan
7. The members agreed that the draft work plan included a practical set of tasks which provided a helpful basis as to how to take forward their work.
8. The members agreed that the Commission would not be seeking new research but would expect papers summarising relevant existing work. The members indicated that material on the various relevant topics would prove helpful for their deliberations.
9. Once members, some of whom do not have a criminal justice background, had had the opportunity to digest such information it was acknowledged they would be better equipped to make informed decisions in terms of populating the work plan further.
Scottish Prisons Commission Secretariat
October 2007