The SNP-led Scottish Government is discriminating against all long-term imprisoned foreign national prisoners in Scotland, it has emerged.
Hundreds of foreign-born inmates are being released from jail later in Scotland than they would be in England or Wales.
This shocking revelation comes after the outgoing leader of the Scottish HM Prisons Inspectorate, Ms.Wendy Sinclair-Giebens, expressed her troubling findings that the Scottish prison service and the SNP-led Scottish Government is currently completely failing the prisoners in their care.
Josh Rosenberg from the SOHO535-INSTITUTE, a prison reform campaigner from Scotland, said: “The SNP led Scottish Government has shown itself incapable of governing lawfully, and upholding equality, or even being non-racist.
“The current Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance and Scottish First Minister John Swinney Currently preside over this grave injustice and have so far utterly failed the public and fellow human beings, and need to remedy that with the greatest possible urgency.”
The injustice explained
Following weeks of investigations, it has emerged that the SPS and SNP led Scottish Government discriminates against all long-term imprisoned foreign national prisoners in Scotland in terms of deportation from the UK compared to any foreign national prisoner in an English or Welsh prison.
In England foreign, long-term national prisoners are removed from the UK by deportation regularly under the Ministry of Justice’s highly-successful Early Removal Scheme (ERS). Foreign prisoners are being deported up to 18 months before their half-term parole qualifying date.
As foreign national prisoners in England do not benefit from the open estate, home leave nor many other positive measures, the ERS scheme compensates that accordingly by removing these foreign national prisoners early from the UK. This measure also helps to relieve the overcrowded prison system and saves the strained public purse vast sums of money housing foreign national prisoners.
That stands in stark contrast to Scotland, where all long-term foreign national prisoners are only deported at the end of their sentence. Foreign long-term prisoners in Scotland do not have access to the open estate, rehabilitation, or home leave, yet all of these support measures are available to Scottish long-term prisoners.
Human rights breaches?
By pursuing this discriminatory and unequal approach, the SNP led Scottish Government could be breaching prisoners’ human rights.
Among the sections of the Human Rights Act that the Scottish Government could be breaching are:
- UK Human Rights Act 1998 Article 5 – right to freedom and liberty.
- Equality Act 2010 Section 9 – protection of race, religion and nationality.
- UK Human Rights Act 1998 Article 3 – protection from torture
Josh Rosenberg said: “The Scottish Government would be able to reduce the overcrowded Scottish prison population by hundreds of prisoners immediately if they would adapt to the English Early Removal Scheme for foreign national prisoners in Scotland. That would also ensure that the Scottish Government starts to act lawful under the Equality Act 2010.”
