Achieving a Sustainable Prison Population

As an amendment to motion S7M-00469, in the name of Neil Gray (Achieving a Sustainable Prison Population), leave out from “acknowledges” to end, and insert "notes that data on prison population published in 2025 show that 63% of current prisoners have been incarcerated before, highlighting the highly cyclical nature of the prison population; expresses concern that the Scottish Government has sought to attribute the unsustainable prison population to external factors, while not fully acknowledging the extent to which failings in both its rehabilitation programme and its approach to tackling the longer term issues have a comparatively much bigger impact; agrees that these failings, combined with the use of early release, put the public at increased risk, and resolves that more intensive support is required to support individuals out of a life of crime and offending, alongside the introduction of minimum sentences for crimes as a stronger deterrent."