Private prisons come at cost to public sector
The Scottish Government must urgently review its private prison expenditure after the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service confirmed that inflation uplifts built into these contracts result in cuts to the overall prison budget, according to the Scottish Greens Justice Spokesperson John Finnie MSP. Colin McConnell made the statement at Hoylrood’s Justice Committee this morning.
In written evidence provided to the committee, the Auditor General stated that the uplifts, “will require additional recurring savings of around £12 million a year by 2022-23.”
John Finnie MSP said:
“Private profit should have no place in Scotland’s criminal justice system. It’s absolutely absurd that cuts must to be made in the public sector, in order to enrich Serco’s shareholders. The Justice Secretary must urgently review this wholly unsatisfactory arrangement. It’s time we stopped dishing out huge amounts of public money to predatory companies who run our public service into the ground.”