About 60% of prisoners in Scotland reoffend within two years

Chairman of the Parole Board for Scotland, Professor James McManus, said its plans would be lucky to reduce the current 60% rate by even 5%.

He raised concerns about proposed Home Detention Curfews, saying they would not improve community safety.

Prof McManus was giving evidence to MSPs on the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Bill.

The bill follows research which reveals that six out of 10 criminals released from prison commit further crimes within two years.

I think if the bill can achieve a 5% reduction in reoffending it will be doing very well indeed Professor James McManus Parole Board for Scotland

At the heart of the new proposals is a recognition that the current system is not working well as the reoffending rate in Scotland is higher than for the rest of the UK.

Professor McManus told Holyrood's Justice 2 Committee: "I think if the bill can achieve a 5% reduction in reoffending it will be doing very well indeed.

"A lot of the bill is predicated upon the assumption that sentencing is directed towards stopping reoffending - and it's not.

"Sentencing is about something else in Scotland - it's about punishment.

"There isn't a direct link between punishment and stopping reoffending. We've proven that by the number of our punished people who do reoffend."

Electronic tagging

He also said that, without extra support, HDCs were just a mechanism for reducing the prison population and were not a "panacea" for reoffenders.

HDCs would allow low-risk prisoners to be released on licence into the community, with the help of electronic tagging and monitoring, towards the end of their sentence.

But the professor said: "Simply tagging someone and keeping them in a place on their own will not achieve very much for community safety.

"But adding to that a process that gives them supervision, gives them assistance to address the issues in their lives, can help and can have a marked effect in reducing re-offending."