WE NEED TO SET CRIMINALS FREE

Chief calls for emergency powers to release cons and ease overcrowding

- CHRIS MCCALL

CRIMINALS should be allowed to walk free from jail to ease "dangerous" overcrowding, the boss of Scotland's prisons has demanded.

Teresa Medhurst wants "emergency powers" to tackle the crisis in cell blocks that are already bursting at the seams.

There are more than 8000 prisoners locked up in Scotland but that figure is projected to rise to 8700 by the end of the year.

In a bombshell intervention, Medhurst warned if the numbers go above 8500 the Scottish Government would have to consider releasing hundreds of inmates back into the community before they have finished their sentences.

Medhurst said: "If I have to say enough is enough then it is because we are at a tipping point.

"We cannot take any more. Prisons have become very unsafe.