Tough fight over police, prisons and courts for new justice secretarypublished at 16:25 BST
16:25 BST
David Cowan
Home Affairs Correspondent
New Justice Secretary
Neil Gray takes over from a former criminal justice social worker who had first
hand experience of Scotland’s prisons and courts and impressed many senior
figures in the sector.
That only took Angela
Constance so far when she faced never-ending demands for more resources from
Scotland’s under-pressure cops, prison bosses, fire service chiefs and court
officials.
Neil Gray will face
exactly the same budget constraints. Justice isn’t a sacred cow like the NHS. He’ll have to fight his corner.
An immediate headache is
Scotland’s prison population, which has just reached another record high,
despite the emergency early release of more than 1400 criminals over the last
two years.
The automatic release
point for hundreds of short-term prisoners is being lowered again this month.
Many will have committed serious crimes and some will do so again.
Inevitably, Gray’s
political future will involve controversial decisions on prisons, fallouts with
police and others over funding, and high-profile court cases which may or may
not make his life more difficult.