Scotland’s prisoner numbers rose by three per cent over the last year and have now risen by 22 per cent over the previous decade.

The figures, released by the Scottish Prison Service today, show the average daily prison population was 7376 in 2007/08. The majority of the prison population – and average of 5815 per day – are sentenced prisoners.

The daily number of prisoners in the system has broken 8000 for the first time in recent weeks.

The daily average of women prisoners was 371, a five per cent increase on the previous years. The female prison population has increased by nearly 90 percent over the last decade, despite repeated pledges in the 1990s and early part of this century to dramatically reduce women prisoner numbers.

Reducing  prison overcrowding is a key priority for the Scottish Government. Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is expected to release his response to former First Minister Henry McLeish’s Prisons Commission report, which recommended more community sentences in place of jail, this autumn.

But the Tories warned that the figures should not be used to push through “soft touch” policies.

Shadow Justice Secretary, Bill Aitken MSP said:

“No doubt the Nationalists will abuse these figures to argue their dangerous case that fewer criminals should be sent to prison. That is wrong and against the public interest. Prison numbers will only be properly cut when crime is cut.

“Prison serves four important functions: to deter criminals, to protect the public, to punish and to rehabilitate. All four matter and we have to have the political will to make prison work. Of course we must do much more to rehabilitate prisoners and continue rehabilitation on release - but if the ends of justice demand more prisons are needed, then we should build them. And of course we should prosecute and sentence swiftly - but in the SNP's soft touch Scotland, what will the sentences actually be?”