Anger over payments made to criminals kept behind bars too long

A Sunday Post probe has revealed 72 prisoners received pay-outs in the past five years after complaining they’d been held beyond their original jail term.

The average payout was £400 but one inmate was handed £4,500 while another walked away with £3,360.

Overall the mistakes in prison paperwork which meant inmates were kept in jail too long have cost the taxpayer more than £25,000.

The news comes in the wake of revelations 62 prisoners, including dangerous offenders, have been released early from Scottish jails by mistake in the last 10 years.

Victims’ groups and opposition politicians last night expressed concern.

David Hines, founder of the National Victims’ Association, said: “Most people would be shocked to learn this.

“Thousands of victims have had their lives ruined by crime, some heinous.

“But where is the justice for them? We are the forgotten victims.

“Many distraught families have to pay thousands in seeking custody of grandchildren when they are left without parents.

“I spent £11,000 formally adopting my grandson after my daughter Marie was sexually assaulted and murdered in 1992.

“I firmly believe that prisoners should not spend longer than their allotted time in prison.

“The law must be fair to everyone but there is no level playing field for victims and their families.”

The prison mistakes emerged in answer to a freedom of information request to the Scottish Prison Service by this newspaper.

It showed 23 inmates were held in jail too long last year – up from 19 in 2014/15 and 18 the year before that.

John Lamont, Scottish Conservative candidate for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, said: “Most hard working Scots will be shocked to learn that the Scottish Prison Service is spending so much money on compensation for prisoners.

“The SPS should be making sure it releases all prisoners on time to avoid these payouts from the public purse.

“This is not a good use of public funds and highlights yet again the SNP’s lacklustre approach to justice in Scotland.”

A spokesman for the SPS said the errors represented a very small proportion of the overall number of criminals who enter the prison system each year.

He added: “Every year approximately 30,000 warrants are processed and 10,000 convicted prisoners are released from custody.

“While we are never complacent, the statistics show that these errors represent a very small proportion.

“All detains in error are reviewed internally.

“We recognise that where an individual has been detained in error, that appropriate compensation should be paid.”

It emerged earlier this year that a convicted robber in Northern Ireland had received £22,500 compensation after he was mistakenly held in jail for a year beyond his release date.

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