Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill today launched a bitter attack on Labour and the Tories after the parties combined to defeat the Government’s plans to extend the Home Detention Curfew scheme. 

“I am appalled at the way Labour and the Tories are playing politics with our prisons. This is jeapordising our prison system. They are playing party politics with our prison system,” he said.

MacAskill appeared before the Justice Committee to seek approval for an instrument that would extend the period a prisoner could spend on HDC – which involves electronic tagging to ensure the prisoner meets their curfew – from four and a half months to six months.

If the scheme had been approved, MacAskill said up to 150 prisoners would have been released on HDC for longer than previously possible. Giving evidence, he said the prison population as of today stood at 8045.

Home Detention Curfews were originally introduced by the previous Labour/Lib Dem Executive.

The Government argued that Scotland’s record prison population has lead to a dangerously overcrowded system and that extending the HDC period would give the system breathing room before HMP Addiewell comes online in January 2009.

But Labour MSPs including shadow Community Safety Minister Paul Martin, Cathie Cragie and Bill Butler said the Government had not provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the need for such an extension.

The Labour group offered to support the measure if the Government withdrew the statutory instrument and re-submitted it after inserting a ‘sunset clause’ that would bring the term of HDC back to four and a half months when Addiewell opens next year, an offer MacAskill rejected on the grounds that such a process would take too long and the urgency of Scotland’s prison overcrowding demanded immediate action.