The Structured Defence Scheme is a to be extended to cover courts across Glasgow and Tayside Community Justice Authorities areas, plus providing continued funding for existing pilot areas, Arbroath, Forfar, Inverness, Ayr and Kilmarnock.  Total funding is £667,000 per year.     
  
The Scheme provides structured social work intervention programmes for offenders after conviction but before final sentencing.  It is targeted at offenders convicted of low level crimes with underlying problems such as drug or alcohol dependency, mental health or learning difficulties or unemployment.   

At the end of the normally three month long programme, the offender returns to court for sentencing.  Their involvement in the scheme is taken into account by the Sheriff and those who participate are less likely to be given custodial sentences.  

An evaluation of the pilots, beginning in 2005, showed that sheriffs were positive about the scheme and confident about its capacity to lower reoffending. 

Announcing the extension of the scheme, MacAskill said:

"Structured Deferred Sentences offer the courts a highly credible option for providing formal interventions with low level offenders. 

"The schemes are now running well and are having positive effects on the root causes of offending behaviour. It is also encouraging that sheriffs have expressed confidence in them.

"These sentences target people who would benefit from social-work led supervision that targets the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. We are not talking about violent, serious and dangerous offenders.

 "A crucial aspect of changing criminal behaviour is demonstrating that there is a more rewarding alternative to a life of crime. Short prison sentences often fail to deliver on that goal.

 "These types of interventions can help an offender address underlying problems, improve employment prospects and build a sense of routine and self-esteem.  This can lead to a future which is free from offending - and that is what we all want."

Responding to the announcement, Shadow Justice Secretary, Bill Aitken MSP said:

"The SNP's desire to create a Soft-Touch Scotland knows no bounds. Today they want to extend a scheme which allows criminals to breach the terms of being spared jail but not face any consequences for up to 3 or 6 months.

"Prison serves four functions: to punish, to deter, to protect the public, and to rehabilitate. However, as is now abundantly clear, the SNP is driven by a compulsion to empty our prisons regardless of the consequences.

"If a court believes that a criminal deserves a prison sentence, then they should be sent to jail. Whilst in jail, prisoners should confront their offending behaviour and be given help to address any underlying problems such as drug or alcohol addiction. And if more prisons are needed, then they should be built.

"The punishment must fit the crime, not the available prison capacity. You do not cut crime merely by cutting the prison numbers. You cut prison numbers by cutting crime. That is why we must find the political will to try and make our jails drug-free, engage prisoners in rehab courses that can continue on release and teach skills useful in the outside world. That is the right way forward.