By Professor John Robertson

Headlining on the Herald website today, another Lib Dem (5th biggest party) ‘investigation’:

Overcrowding in Scotland’s prisons has led to a significant drop in the number of “purposeful activity” hours being offered to inmates, new figures have revealed.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have warned of a “vicious cycle” with prisoners reoffending because they have been deprived of education and training while inside that would help them rehabilitate.

The evidence? This:

So, once more, selective, inaccurate, use of stats from the Lib Dumbs.

First the fall of 3, from 16 to 13 hours, is not 25%, but 18.75%. Did they do 3 as a percentage of 13 to get the % it would go up if you went back in a time machine?

Second, the trend is up 30%, from 10 to 13 hours after the pandemic effects and we’re a long time now from August 2023.

Overcrowding? Nope, that’s a fib to:

Scotland currently has 137 prisoners per 100 000 population. England & Wales has 144 per 100 000.

Despite a growing population, the prison population of Scotland has been stable for some time at and is not expected to grow beyond 7 600.

https://www.scotpho.org.uk/population-groups/prisoners/data/prison-population

The prison population in England and Wales is projected to grow to between 93,100 and 106,300 by 2027.

All things being equal, the prison population of England & Wales should be around 11 times higher than that of Scotland, or 83 600. By 2027 it is projected to be around 23 000 or 28% higher.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04334/SN04334.pdf

The above media feed from Liam McArthur is only the latest in his run of reports. See this from January of 2024:

Scottish Lib Dumb luck my friend as their London pals reveal prison assaults were pro rata more than TWICE as common in England & Wales than in Scotland

From the Scottish Lib Dumbs, our 5th biggest and thus tiniest political party at Holyrood:

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP has today called for support for prison staff as he revealed that more than 1,500 prisoner on prisoner assaults and 265 assaults on staff took place last year.  https://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/news/article/lib-dems-reveal-scale-of-assaults-on-prisoners-and-staff-in-scotlands-prisons

From the Guardian yesterday:

There were nearly 8,000 assaults on prison staff in the year to June 2023, almost one an hour on average, the Liberal Democrats have said, arguing that the statistic shows the consequences of prisoner overcrowding and low staffing levels.https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/01/assaults-on-prison-staff-nearly-hourly-in-england-and-wales-data-shows

With 11 times the population, England & Wales, all things being equal, might be expected to have had around 2 915 assaults on prison officers but had 8 000, more than TWICE as many.

Given they are one UK-based party, they should be better able to coordinate things with a view to avoid embarrassment.